Home / Arts and Entertainment / £25 Car Boot Find Becomes £103,875 Bond Watch
£25 Car Boot Find Becomes £103,875 Bond Watch
18 Sep
Summary
- A Breitling wristwatch bought for £25 was sold for £103,875 at auction.
- The watch was worn by Sean Connery in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball.
- It was a modified Breitling Top Time, featuring a fictional Geiger counter gadget.
In the summer of 2013, a Breitling wristwatch discovered at a British car boot sale for just £25 achieved an astonishing £103,875 at Christie's. This remarkable sale was attributed to the watch's iconic status as the timepiece worn by Sean Connery in the 1965 James Bond film, Thunderball.
The watch in question is a Breitling Top Time (Ref. 2002), originally manufactured in 1962. It was notably modified by the film's art department to include a fictional Geiger counter, a gadget utilized by Bond within the movie. This unique customization makes it potentially the first watch ever specially equipped for a cinematic Bond.
Christie's Pop Culture auction on June 26, 2013, in London saw the watch, estimated between £40,000 and £60,000, soar to nearly double its upper estimate due to intense bidding. Experts highlighted it as potentially the sole Q Branch gadget watch worn by Connery, significantly driving its value.
The journey of this valuable prop from the movie set in the mid-1960s to an anonymous buyer at a car boot sale remains a mystery. It is theorized that the watch was misplaced after filming and later regarded as a mere vintage item, rather than its true, historically significant role.
This significant find continues to be celebrated among collectors and enthusiasts, demonstrating how historically important objects can be overlooked until their true provenance is recognized, a decade after its record-breaking sale.
