GUEST:
Well, this watch was given to me by my extended family, and I've had it for almost a decade.

APPRAISER:
Are you familiar with the company?

GUEST:
Yes, Patek Philippe, sure.

APPRAISER:
It happens to be one of the greatest watch companies...

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
...that still makes watches today. The case of the watch, it's madein silver, and it's what we would call coin silver. There's a hand on the top there. It's a power reserve indicator. That would tell you, when the watch is wound all the way up, how many hours it would take until it runs down. So basically, on a full wind, it would run about 36 hours. We know it's not in working condition right now. It could be made to work again.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
So when it is running, that constant second hand is constantly turning on the watch. This particular model is referred to as a deck watch. They typically had three of them all set the same time, so you had redundancy...

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
...in case one didn't work, two didn't work, stopped working, you still had a, a third one that was working. The ones that I have seen in the past, on the back of the case on the outside, are usually marked "U.S. Navy." Your particular one is not marked that way.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
So I don't know who it was made for. The serial number, that is the serial number of the mechanism, of the movement of the watch. The case has a different serial number. I have one personally in my collection right now that is 141 numbers from yours. Mine was made in 1911, and it was sold, according to the extract, January 30, 1915. So I think yours falls right into that category. Probably manufactured in 1911 and sold around 1915. So, generally, the ones for the U.S. Navy are engraved on the back, "U.S. Navy," right here.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
There's nothing removed, but because of the production numbers are very close...

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
I think this was sold to the, the U.S. government.

GUEST:
Wow.

APPRAISER:
There's the inner dust cover, which also has that movement number on there, and it's signed Patek Philippe. And I want to open up, up the inside. Let's study the mechanism of it. These movements are just really phenomenal. Highly jeweled. There's the serial number right there. "Watch"...

GUEST:
Right. And I saw it matches the face in the front.

APPRAISER:
That is correct. This particular watch has a very special balance on it. The balance is this wheel right here that, that spins back and forth. It's known as a Guillaume balance.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
It was invented, invented by Charles Édouard Guillaume. In 1920, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
These watches were the most accurate watches of the era, and they had special people in the factory that only regulated these watches. These watches were all sent to the timing trials in Geneva, Switzerland, at the observatory there, and it was made for heat and cold. Because when they did those timing trials, they were done under the extremist conditions. Manufacturers wanted to prove that they made the most accurate timepieces. So they submitted pieces to these trials. This one here is marked "extra." This watch was sent to the observatory timing trials. Now, we didn't have enough time today, but it is possible to still check the records of the observatory. The extract will tell you what award it won, if it won an award.

GUEST:
But it won't be able to find out...

APPRAISER:
No.

GUEST:
...the name of who bought it, right?

APPRAISER:
What we, what we want to see... Let me-- no, they never release... Patek Philippe will never release that. They may bid on it and buy it at auction, and then once in, it's in their museum, they say it belonged to this person, but they, they will not give you that information. Your dial is made out of enamel, porcelain. It's white enamel. Everyone that I've ever seen and every one that I could research on this, the dials were made out of silver. Your watch has an enamel dial.

GUEST:
So...

APPRAISER:
I have no idea why it has an enamel dial, but that had to be a special order. All the printing on it is exactly the same as a silver dial.

GUEST:
Really? Hm. Wow.

APPRAISER:
You have something very special here.

GUEST:
It's good. It could be one of a kind, possibly?

APPRAISER:
It's very possible. What did you think the value of this is?

GUEST:
I looked through, like, some of the records and some websites maybe five years ago, and I saw maybe $2,000. I saw one was $3,000. But I couldn't find this specific one. Maybe $4,000? I don't know what the recent market is now.

APPRAISER:
The market has gone up and down on these. I've seen them in the past bring around $10,000, years ago.

GUEST:
That's very nice.

APPRAISER:
They went up, they went up extremely high...

GUEST:
Oh, yeah.

APPRAISER:
...and they've come back down.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
I've been describing the ones that I've handled and I've seen, today's market are about $20,000 to $25,000.

GUEST:
Wow, very impressive. That's, that's amazing. I didn't think it was worth that much. I have to be really careful with this.

APPRAISER:
Well, you're gonna have to be more careful.

GUEST:
(chuckles)

APPRAISER:
Because now we have that dial, and all those had silver dials on them.

GUEST:
Really?

APPRAISER:
Now, it's hard to place a value on something that there is no record of a sale of it.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
But based on expertise and seeing other unique pieces selling...

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
...I think in auction today, this watch would sell, probably, at, in the least amount, $50,000.

GUEST:
Really? (chuckling)

APPRAISER:
But I think you have the potential of a $100,000 timepiece here.

GUEST:
It's very impressive, really. I had no idea. I don't know what to say. (chuckles) Very excited. And I thought it was only worth a, a couple thousand. I had no idea it could go up to $100,000. I had no idea.

APPRAISER:
No. It's so rare that if it was sold at auction, not working or working, it's still going to bring you the same price.