Phillips is putting up a Rolex Submariner watch for auction this fall and it’s not just any old Rolex: this one was owned and inscribed by the man himself, Steve McQueen. According to Esquire, the legendary actor’s ownership is just the first act in the life of a watch that has seen it all, including a wildfire.
McQueen gifted the Rolex to his favorite stuntman, Loren Janes, in the mid-late ‘70s. Janes, who worked with McQueen on classics ranging from Bullitt to The Great Escape, received the watch with the caseback inscription “To Loren, the best damn stuntman in the world. Steve.”
Though Janes passed away in 2017, the watch remained in his family until 2016, when the family’s home burned down in the California Sand Fire. The family believed the watch to be lost, but at the request of the watch’s anonymous consigner, they searched and, surprisingly, found it. Rolex repaired the watch 1964-style, and thrillingly, the caseback remained unharmed.
The watch, which will be the first one that physically bears McQueen’s name to make it to auction, is expected to sell for something in the $300,000-600,000 neighborhood.
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