Greatest Finds: Lawrence Of Arabia's Omega Pilot Watch | Antiques Roadshow
All valuations were correct at the time of broadcast. The owner is stunned to discover that his random purchase for under a hundred pounds, once belonged to legendary army officer TE Lawrence, who became renowned during World War One. Does the watch's value increase based on who it belonged to? Hugh Scully and the experts from Antiques Roadshow take a look at some fantastic antiques and the history and stories surrounding them. This clip was filmed in Barnstaple in 2000.
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This watch sold for CHF 86,000 in November, 2000. I do not know if it was purchased by Omega, but it is now on display in the Omega museum. A great place for it.
? 86,000……. Pounds ? Or ? $86,000. Dollars ?
CHF means Swiss francs about $100000 us dollers £ 70000 uk pounds
Great to hear it is safe now, and won't disappear into oblivion.
Thank you, saved me googling!@@davidfennessey2727
@@roberthein2156There’s more than two currencies in the world, you know? One Swiss franc (CHF) is currently worth $1.17, €1.07 and £0.92.
Having read through, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and having, "Lawrence of Arabia" being my favorite movie, I can't imagine having this relic. What a find!
Read, “A prince of our Disorder.”
@@IrishAnnie I'll check that out, thanks
Let me guess: You are not an ameerican officer!
This is definitely one of our favourite finds in the show!
Then the Winged Hussars arrived!
One of the most gorgeous dials I have ever seen.
Proper
I love that the Antiques Roadshow have watches in almost every episode now. It's become quite a hit with watch collectors and online forums!
Sold to Omega in an auction for 86,000 CHF. Omega went on to recreate 18 of the watches for the public of which they all sold for 136,000 CHF a piece. Not a bad old investment that.
£80,000
@@thegroovetube3247 👏🏽🤦🏽
Incredible. I would very much like to own a watch that an amazing and courageous man like T.E. Lawrence. Thank you for sharing your update!
Reproductions sold for almost double! What a grift.
This is why I love wristwatches. It’s not just the watch is the history they can be such a personal item on someone’s wrist for most of their life
Lived for two years in 1980s in alwejh and duba where TE gathered his Arab forces Once travelling between met very old gentleman wearing a British army greatcoat . Me no Arabic him no English but he conveyed to me that he had fought in the Arab revolt . So I shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of Lawrence ! 😊
It's amazing who you can meet on your travels. Not as impressive as your story, but as a student on a study summer abroad in Taiwan in 1993, I was introduced to a Japanese friend of my landlord. Nice old fellow. The gentleman didn't speak English and I didn't speak Japanese, although my landlord spoke good Japanese and my Mandarin was enough to communicate at a basic level, so we all muddled through. Turns out the old guy had been a kamikaze pilot in WW2. Yes, I know what you're thinking - but he had joined his unit just before the war ended and hadn't had the "honour" of being sent on a mission yet. So unlike most of his fellow airmen, he'd simply walked away as his services were no longer required - and he'd gone on to live a whole life. He realized I was interested in his story (of course I was!), so he brought a photo album to show the British guest old pictures of him and his colleagues in uniform. There was a particularly poignant one of him and his best friend. He pointed at his friend and got the message across that he had, indeed, been sent on a mission. It was quite a thing to watch his eyes mist over a little in contemplation as they lingered over the old photo. It was a really extraordinary moment for me as a young student. That sense of touching living history in a totally unexpected - and very human - way.
@@russetmantle1 I suppose he 'dodn't have the honour' of working my mum's Uncle Bob to death as a slave labourer in Burma, either. My heart bleeds for him.
Can't imagine a collectible like that going for less than hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds!
Today yes, but this was filmed in the late 89's early 90's it looks like. Watches were nowhere near as collectable as they have become in the last decade.
@@bobbobertbobberton1073 the video description states it was filmed in 2000
@@theBrezidentthis looks like late 80’s early 90’s.
After doing some quick TV listings research it looks like this ep from Barnstaple was from series 23, in 2000. The image is zoomed in to account for the modern aspect ratio which gives it a slightly 80s look.🤓
He sold the watch at auction in November 2012. It was bought by the omega museum for 86,000 Swiss francs.
owned by Lawrence of Arabia and worn by him throughout the Arabia campaign, was discovered on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, and later sold at Antiquorum to the Omega Museum for Sfr86,000.
It looks suspiciously brand new to me. No marks on the case, the face is fresh looking and not discoloured & the glass (it's too early to be perspex - surely) is not scratched. Maybe the winder is original & the rest of it is a refurb...
@@MySteamingi thought the same, the dial and glass look flawless...i hope the repair that was done didnt replace it.
@@MySteaming Apparently some of the parts were replaced or changed. Serial number on the caseback was matched to a different watch ordered by France. A few symbols were suspect as well. Omega just ran w it because why not? lol. It's not really about the watch but who apparently wore it.
@@MySteaming Not necessarily so. Almost all actual campaign watches were worn in modified adapted wristlets (a leather case which held a pocket watch, and turned it in to a wrist watch)... you will see pictures of bare watches, but far more often, the watch was held in leather, and the addition of a front flap made to the wristlet, held by a latch or stud. Such watch casing continued to be popular for any hard worn watches right up until the availability of very tough plastic cased watches like Casio types... among say, Farmers. I live in outback Australia, grew up in flyspec town about half way between Sydney and Brisbane, and about 500 kms inland.....and in the late 70s, early 80s, and almost every farmer I knew in the even small satellite village which served as hub for all the farms... nothing but farms.. surrounding it.... wore their watch in such a leather wristlet. One old lean cockie, must have been about 75 or 80 then.... had the same leather case for about 40 years, only the second he'd needed... and his watch was an American Waltham from the late 1920s!!!! It was basically still fine. He'd cracked the crystal once, and the... pallet fork? I think .... not that I knew what that was they, had gotten misaligned once... but aside from that, it was the same watch he'd had since NEW, and was in unbelievable condition. I know this because he had a conversation with my father... who was born in 1918, and so was a few years younger.....about the watch... because my Father owned a late 1940s Waltham (which I lost as a teen, when I first moved house, after his death)... and was wearing it that day (my father worked shearing sheds as a Rousabout)... and it was such good condition the old farmer came up and showed my old man HIS, declaring them the best watches in world (my father did not have the heart to tell him he usually wore a mid 60s Seiko, and was only wearing the older watch that day as his Seiko was in the shop for a service lol). So I have seen first hand, how you CANNOT trust dial, or case, or bezel, or crown, on antique wrist watches. Thee VERY best, have been kept, and cared for, in a manner which sees them NOT fade, sees them NOT take a beating, NOT lose luster. The only real way to KNOW what is the case, especially with older watches, say Pre-Quartz era.... is to have them taken apart, numbers and stampings checked, etc etc. In fact, oft when one does, they see they are RIGHT... there's been a LOT of work done..... BUT... it is all internal, the case, face, hands, and crown, are actually all original the watch has just been pampered, or kept protected, and it is the internals which have been replaced, maybe just a base plate, and main spring, and like, one well worn lever, or such, being original, and most other things replaced. Lord knows, you see that an awful lot. I mean, that is how the very best fakes of today, fool the experts at a glance.... because that Rolex, say... IS an authentic Rolex... case.... dial.... bracelet.... at first glance inside, that is a genuine Rolex rotor..... and then.... only once you get inside, you see it is best case, a Frankenrolex... made up of multiple pieces of different movements decades apart....or worse... using a cheap Chinese parts bin movements.. not even something kind pretty good, like a Seagull, but something made in some Soviet era factory gifted to Mao because the machining it produced was too shoddy even for Stalinist Russia. So yeah, cannot tell at a glance, and whilst it seems counter intuitive, military watches, field watches, fleigers, campaigners which actually went on and did so.... can actually be in incredible condition IF they survived the war.... and most which DID survive did so, because they WERE kept protected. Even with the modifications made to the watch too, it easily COULD be worth what Omega went in on for it, if enough of the watch IS original... some stamps not matching, some pieces being replacements, do not matter in and of themselves.... if they dial is legit, or at least, cannot be established is not.. if the movement is generally more original than not, and if the case is original, then this is would be one of Omega's very earliest wrist watches, with an incredible story, and amazing bona fides.. even WITH the discrepancies hither and dither.
They bought it in 2000, the same year of this video- so he didn't hang around! I can't blame him
My man thought Lawrence of Arabia was a made-up character, like Sinbad or Aladdin 😂
or Trump?
@@JeffreyLearugh. That man lives in your head rentfree
@@JeffreyLear Trump is a hero except for those suffering from TDS.
FROM ALL THE THINGS SHE COULD HAVE FORGOTTEN, SHE FORGETS MY FATHER'S WATCH! I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HER : BEDSIDE TABLE, ON THE KANGAROO.
😆
Z’s dead, baby. Z’s dead!
Where's my Honda? Sorry, baby, but I had to crash that Honda.
*kangaroo 🤦♂️
@@fezzik7619 corrected
This is amazing! What a phenomenal find.
I remember watching Lawrence of Arabia as a young lad. I've owned it on VHS, DVD now digital. What an extraordinary find!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think a video is an "extraordinary find"! Are you Welsh too?
@@williamwilliam5066 I was talking about the watch...........
🤣
I'd argue this is a museum piece worth millions. Omega is a legendary company, Lawrence of Arabia is beyond legend. This is one of the most intrinsically unique and important items you can ever come across.
Omega (or whoever bought it in Swiss Francs then loaned it to Omega) have had this watch in their museum since almost immediately after this taping. It was auctioned off for about $100,000 back in 2000... it's obviously a "priceless" piece that's going to stay in the museum (as either Omega owns it or if it's on loan then Omega will buy it off the owner if they ever want/need to sell it.)
You'd have another laugh: I wore for a decade an Omega I thought was a fake. A buddy moved onto my acreage with his trailer, having been screwed out of his grandmothers' inheritance by his own mom. He had to clean clock on the acerage and as he was staying for free, brought an old box of watches (mainly Times, etc.) and almost none had wristbands. I picked out an "Omega", put a band on it, and went to work. Years later I took it into an Austrain watchmaker for a new band and he asked me if he could buy it, as he coudln't get parts for Omega in Canada. 5,000. Dollars. I just about passed out. YOU MEAN IT'S REAL??? I ShOULD have clicked: grandma was from Austria!
I think the dude undervalued the watch by a factor of 10...there is only 1 Lawrence of Arabia watch, someone will pay a fortune for it at the right auction.
Being from Saudi Arabia and having an interest in wrist watches I was amazed to see this , so interesting!
Paul Newman's rolex sold for $17.75 million. Had this gentleman sold this watch today, there is every chance it would sell for millions of dollars as well. I think this is much more important than that Rolex...
Not to collecting as a whole.
Worth about £3,000,000 today. Paul Newman or Steve McQueen watches are more sought after today.
Indeed it is especially since it has a historical value apart from the value of the watch and the context that it was entangled with.
Millions it'd be worth
ROLEX ARE MASS PRODUCED CRAP
Good job he never took it to Rick at Pawn Stares. "$500. Not a penny more".
I'm taking all the risks and it might hang around for ages!!!!!
@@johnhodges8264 Exactly!!
He would of called an expert who would have claimed the signature was a fake. It must be genuine but i thought the guy acted a bit sus, started scratching his wig, when the document was examined .
Best I can do is $500
A vintage Omega might not have ‘holy trinity’ credentials, but even a battered old Smiths or Timex owned by the greatest ‘boys own’ adventurers of the 20th Century T.E. Lawrence would be a ‘holy grail’ find 🙏🏽
what are the holy trinity of watches?
@@CIMAmotor 1. Patek Phillipe 2. Audemars Piguet 3. Vacheron Constantin
@@Pulsonar Thanks. I've never heard of the middle one.
@@CIMAmotor You probably recognise the AP logo. It’s most famous model is a stainless steel sports watch - the Royal Oak. It even overshadows the company logo because watch buffs just refer to its most well known reference as the ‘Royal Oak’ or the other beefed up model variant - Royal Oak Offshore
@Pulsonar no rolex on the list? Given the importance of the brand to the industry I would put then there
What an incredible find!
Priceless 😊
What a fantastic watch!
If I have my conversions right, it sold for $94,000 USD to the Omega museum in switzerland
With inflation since 2000, that's $107,674.44.
That would be 86,000 Swiss francs, to be precise.
😮
And that's just a museum, quite sure it could fetch even more on a private auction
Or 20 teddy bears on the planet Zuke
It a beautiful watch and in excellent condition.
WOW... just WOW!
Bloody priceless, Airman Shaw shaped history.
Lawrence certainly was and still is an intriguing character. Eminent diplomat, army officer, and traveller in many dangerous areas, but who in the end was killed only a few minutes from his home in a motorbike accident while avoiding some kids. I have always been curious about the story that he left the original manuscript of his masterpiece Seven Pillars of Wisdom in a suitcase in a train station. I like to think that it is still lurking in the back of a lost property office somewhere. Maybe one day it will show up on the Roadshow as well.
I've heard the same story about Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley, and Garrison Keillor: Both lost a manuscript at a train station.
All we have to do is find that train station....we`ll make a fortune!@@thephilster6860
That suitcase was probably sold at a lost property auction. The buyer was probably disappointed to find it contained just some paper and used it to start his fire in the mornings for a while.
I heard dodging kids was movie fiction.
Truly a remarkable timepiece, stand alone. However, being the watch of such a legendary historical figure. I can't imagine the value of such a timepiece. The Rolex Daytona worn by Paul Newman fetched millions of dollars. A watch owned, worn and with the repair bill T.E. Shaw (Lawrence) the watch should be in a museum or kept as a memento for his loved ones. What a brilliant watch.
Great Scott!
1:50 - Lawrence's own story in his autobiography describes how he successfully re-enlisted to the RAF on 28 Aug 1922 under the name of John Hume Ross, but was later spotted and discharged in 1923, and then how he successfully re-enlisted as Shaw. In fact, what happened on 28 Aug 1922 was that the recruiting officer was the also-famous "Biggles" author W E Johns, who had no idea who "Ross" really was, rejected him because his name and references were easily proven to be false - but Johns was over-ruled when "Ross" re-appeared an hour later with an Air Ministry messenger carring an order that "Ross" should be enlisted immediately. He was as a result allowed through to the medical exam, which he immediately failed, and the medics absolutely refused to pass him. The Air Ministry then produced their own doctor who signed "Ross" off as fit. Johns complained to his Commanding Officer, who told him who "Ross" really was - and that was the end of that. Johns had never been made aware of the special Air Ministry orders from the Chief of Air Staff Sir Hugh Trenchard that "Ross" was to be enlisted without any fuss, as he was on special espionage duty.
I Don't Know Much About Watches But Based On Provenance, I Would've Bet It Would've Been Worth A Whole Lot More. Thank You.
Why are you posting with capital letters on word? What's wrong with you?
That would be worth an absolute fortune today with the way vintage watches go. It also looks immaculate for a watch of that age.
His undelivered brough superior ss100 is in a museum, priceless
About five years ago, while working on my Master's Thesis on James Joyce, I was able to work with Lawrence's copy of Ulysses. Quite a moment. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is where it resides.
Lovely.
Love to own that watch
Wow! What a prize!
I can't believe he thought Lawrence was fictional! I myself was lucky enough recently to have found a similar watch, on an online auction site, which once belonged to the WWI fighter ace, Biggles. Yes, I know, I couldn't believe my luck either!
Haha. Get it insured..
Did you know that W.E. Johns (author of _Biggles)_ was a recruiting officer who initially rejected Lawrence when Lawrence wanted to get into the RAF?
Is that the famous fighter ace, Tig Ol Biggles?
I thought he gave it to Ginger 😂
Have you read" Biggles flies undone"
Today. In 2024. That watch value is 100 millions. Incredible. Legend TE Laurence. WW1…. Incredible.
100 millions shibu inu?
I chuckled when he said he wants to get it in-Shawed! 😂
God, how I would love that watch!
Talk about under valuation when the word gets out about this watch sky's the limit can't believe he said 5 to 10 grand more like 100 to 150 thousand and IAM around these watches all the time so I now lucky man IAM so pleased for him
Thankyou for your information yes a lovely man and a great momentom of his past fascinating life
Very cool 👍👍👍
Amazing watch and he followed my two material passions horology and motorcycles. But he made promises of our nation that we did not keep.
I saw this at the Omega museum in Bienne, wonder what it would sell for now???
I love the numbers
He thought Lawrence was a fictional character. Lol
Even for CHF 86K, it’s a steal. This would probably sell for hundreds of thousands today, if not more. Watch collecting, especially for watches with an interesting history, has gone wild!
It sold for 86000 Swiss Francs (about 79,000 pounds) to Omega in 2018…..so no not worth 100’s of thousands
0:45 bro spitting straight factsss
That guarantee certificate and the astute valuer linked that watch to history.
It was fortuitous that the guy kept that repair bill and brought it with him, otherwise the expert would have put it down as an interesting but unexceptional watch. The connection to Lawrence makes it unique and irreplaceable.
What an amazing find, but how many of us would have linked Shaw with LOA? The appraiser really showed why they are so good at what they do. I now wonder if Shaw was wearing it when he had his fatal accident? Makes you wonder where the previous owner acquired it.
Anybody who had read anything about Lawrence would know that, one of my mates even wrote a song about him...
There's lovely
It was his bargain find. He paid the money for it, his luck was in. Sour grapes in these other comments!
What sour grapes are you referring too, there's about 10 comments here, half of them talking about how much it fetched at auction
As the darkness falls and Arabia calls. One man spreads his wings
Understandable that this man did not know who T.E.Shaw was, but unbelievable that he thought the Lawrence of Arabia was a fiction Character.
Well, it did led an unbelievable life so…
It actually turns out that he was in fact a fictional character after all! Crazy how things work out in the end.
Anybody know the function of the sub-dial numbered up to 15? Thanks...
Very remarkable, from the time pocket watches were converted for wrist use or wrist pieces were heavily influenced by pocket watches.
Wow.
Thats the best Omega I've ever seen , if i had bought it I'd have it on my wrist would never sell it or have it sitting in some musum i would pass it on to my son let him make the monetary decision , what a find !
That's a museum piece.
He may still love the chatacter its a matter of learning so thats great and i hope he learns more to appreciate what he does have
He sold it, I'm sure he appreciated the healthy sum he received though!
That beloongs in a museum!
It is. Omega bought the watch and put it in their museum in Switzerland.
@@Mark-vj7zd the correct response is: "So do you!....throw 'em overboard!"
Don't I wish that I had found it first!
He definitely knew who the name was so funny😅
I seem to recall a lady on one of the antiques programmes having another of his watches. She didn't know who T E Shaw was either. It, if I recall correctly, was a chronometer and valued at around £3,000 - £4,000. 🤔🤔
I locked it up in 2021 it sold for over £9000 although some quoted it would get silly money like £200,000 not bad for a tenner on Newport market
For a piece that went through WW1, in the deserts of the middle east, it certainly is in great shape
I was amazed! 1912 seems very early for a pilots wrist watch. 🤔
Well been flying for 8 years by 1912 and once they worked out how to do it. They really learnt how to do it, so there are few thousand flyers by this point. You can actually buy planes and you need a license by 1916
@mellonmarshall I'm not on about how long man has been flying. I'm well aware of the history of aviation. I was brought up on aviation & spent my entire wrong life in the Aerospace Industry. I'm on about Pilot Watches & their manufacture.
@@MySteaming 1912 is indeed a bit early for a specific pilot's watch, at least on the wrist. Wristwatches for men were still very much a minority thing, even seen as 'feminine'. It took WW1 to change that perception and even then it took until the 30's before wristwatches overtook pocketwatches in sales to men. Pocketwatches were certainly clipped to instrument panels in aircraft, some designed for that job(same design for the other new rich man's toy the car). You do see adverts post WW1 that show pilots, drivers, golfers etc wearing wristwatches, but 'true' pilots watches specifically aimed at pilots and with useful features for them in any numbers is a late 20's and 30's thing.
Look up the history of the Cartier Santos, very early possibly the first pilot watch.
@@johnjeromson3471 a history claimed by Cartier. The actual evidence is more than a bit thin on the ground. No records of it, notphotos of him wearing one(and he was one of the more photographed people on earth for the time) and no sign of the watch itself. The example often pictured comes from circa 1911 when they were series produced.
It’s the connection an item has to real people, some famous like in this case and some not…but still, that connection to people long gone is quite incredible
Wow
A monumentous under evaluation. He said it being Lawrence of Arabias watch it may double or triple the value… more like 25x-50x the value
What does CHF 86000 translate to in USD?
Lived in the Saudi town of Yanbu for a year and I once saw this decrepit old house. I asked my Arab friend why it was still standing and he said 'a famous man called Lawrence lived there'. Went up to the house where they had a little plaque and sure enough...
Please stop with the nonsense preview snippets at the beginning of the clip. We're not all five years old, and we don't all have ADHD.
but maybe some people are and some people do so jog on
@@artful1967 don’t annoy the 99.999% normal to protect feelings of the 0.001%
he knew all along
The Welsh guy took No Prisoners with this one .
No Turkish prisoners
Imagine not known he was a real person
He probably thought he was a character like Sinbad, or Aladdin 😂
He probably did know, but feigned ignorance.
Lawrence was probably spinning in his grave when he said that
i am not british, but i have a suspicion that their education system considers T.E lawrence to be an evil white colonizer and likes to pretend he doesn't exist.
Lawrence Of Arabia - 1962 - David Lean - Freddie Young - Maurice Jarre.
He said im sure😅😅😅
I can't believe this watch is legit .a birmingham watch dealer told me he sold the watch without paper work approx 5 years before it appears on antiques roadshow
Omega were very cunning and slick…they kept their plans well under wraps. Obviously they had to own it for their museum….
Probably the best place for it so people can visit and enjoy it. Having been to the museum a number of years ago. The curator at the time was saddened that they could not afford many of the iconic watches that came up for auction and disappeared into private collections.
I wore what I thought was a fake Omega for a decade. I should have clicked that it was real as my friends grandmother was from Austria, and he offered me my pick in a box of strapless watches, all the others being Timex and common brands. Turns out it was REAL. I took it into an Austrian jeweler in Canada and he said he needed it for parts, as Omega parts were extremely scarce. What?? It's REAL???
That watch is worth more than $100,000 today
Wow, that gentleman virtually gave that watch away! They ripped him off. $90,000? It's worth much more than that!
It was the bloke who wrote Biggles that signed him back into service as an enlisted man in the RAF.
Yeah...yeah...yeah
Good job he kept the repair bill
"I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo!"
This would be worth well north of 400-500k now, the market has changed alot since 2000 when this sold. Shame he didnt hold onto it!
True - but he had £50k or so value out of that sale for the past 23 years. Maybe worth more to him then than a few hundred k as an old man.
Should be worth 500.000 if not one million dollars now.
This is hilarious
*Holy-Hannah! This would **_easily_** fetch six-figures now for the association alone.* 🤯
i thought he was a fictional character as well lol
I don't wear watches but that is a beautiful looking watch.
In 2023 probably it would be a couple of million. Paul Newman rolex fetched 17 million so it would safe to assume at least 1million for thsione
It's like Pawn Stars!! It's worth hundreds of thousands if not millions...
The owner looks like Bob Knight
"I'd double that: maybe five... maybe ten..." Maybe forty...
Maybe this guy thought ww1 was a movie by Hollywood as well