ROLEX WORN DURING WWII ‘GREAT ESCAPE’ SELLS FOR $189000

Sat 10 June 2022:

A Rolex watch worn by a British prisoner during the ‘Great Escape’ from a Nazi war camp received $189,000 at Christie’s auction in New York.

Gerald Imeson was among the Allied soldiers who risked their lives to flee the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp in 1944.

Imeson was wearing the Rolex watch that was auctioned during this escape, which inspired the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.

Imeson had ordered the watch from Rolex in Switzerland, according to Christie’s, a British auction company.

Attempt: F/Lt Imeson, fourth from left at Stalag Luft III camp. He was allocated position 172 in the queue of PoWs to escape but never made it into the tunnel as the German guards discovered the break-out

The Red Cross had delivered a steel watch with a black luminous dial to the prison camp near the modern-day Polish town of Zagan.

Calling the watch “instrumental in the planning and execution” of their bid for freedom, the auction house added that it helped prisoners in timing patrols of the camp guards along with the time needed for crawling through the tunnels.

Imeson wore the Oyster Chronograph until his death in 2003 at the age of 85, while he waited 172nd in line to escape.

The Rolex watch, which was first auctioned in the United Kingdom in 2013, was predicted to fetch $200,000 during the auction.

Other legendary items sold with the clock were a membership card for The Goldfish Club, which is reserved for pilots and crew who have crash-landed into the water and survived, as well as a Royal Air Force whistle.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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