Top 7 most expensive Watches | Pawn Stars

What do we got here? I brought a watch in. I thought you might want to have a look at. And to my knowledge, it's pretty special. Arnold & Son. So is this one of those fancy watches that actually tells longitude? It is. And it's really complicated. I actually opened the instructional manual, and my head exploded. The Wedding Gift. It's one of the first mechanical wristwatches to be able to tell you the latitude and longitude of your position. I'd like to get about 5,000, but I'd probably take somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000. Basically what it is, it's a watch that's really accurate. And you could use this today to navigate with. Do you see those red lines and those blue lines? Yeah. The Earth moves at 15 degrees per hour. Based on the position of the sun, you can figure out your longitude. Real simple, huh? Yeah. Real straightforward. I mean, nowadays you have GPS. But at one point in history, a very accurate clock on a ship was extremely important. Before they had an accurate clock, you'd take your boat north or south to the exact latitude you wanted to, and then just go east or west to wherever you were headed. There's stories of plenty of guys who literally sailed to Hawaii, just sailed right past it, and didn't realize it for a long, long time. Ha ha ha. Back in the days before GPS, it's instruments like this that made navigation possible. Nerds like me love this kind of stuff. But there's not a huge market for these. So I'd be taking a lot of risk if I bought it. How much you want for it? I'd like to get $5,000. Ain't going to happen. OK. The hard part about this watch is it doesn't say Rolex or Patek Philippe or Vacheron Constantin. You know what, forget all the fancy brands. This is something unique. And I think with the story and the history of the company, I think it's worth $5,000. I'm thinking more like $2,500. Could you do $4,200? I'll tell you what, I'll do $3,100. All right. You got a deal. Cool. I'll meet you right up front. All right. I feel pretty good about the deal. I think $3,100 is a fair price. The person who gave me the watch is a gift. I'm definitely going to have to treat them to a nice dinner when I get back. So what do we got here, man? This is a 1912 Naval Observatory pocket watch. Cool. Made by Longines. My dad said he won it in a poker game. OK. We actually get that a lot around here. Ha ha ha. I'm assuming with the box that it's in that it was probably made to be mounted to the nightstand of a ship. Hoping to get one for $5,000, but I would probably settle for $2,000. Nice. Longines have the oldest registered trademark of a watch logo in the world. That says a lot. Sure. They built the timing mechanism for gymnastics in 1912. OK. And they did such a good job of it that they used them for a bunch of years in the Olympics and stuff like that. Now, if you think about the Navy, time of day is really important. Sure. The US Naval Observatory is pretty bad ass. They're responsible for the positioning, navigation, and timing for the whole US military. So any watch they issue would be pretty awesome. So tell me, what do you know about the watch itself? Really, I don't know too much about it, other than it's never been mounted, never been refinished, polished. It's all original. The research I've done, it's designed to be mounted down to a nightstand of a captain or a first mate. OK. You see the 800 right there? 0.8000? Yes. That means this watch is 80% silver. Nice. Which would make sense for it being a Navy watch, because silver doesn't really rust. OK. Now, how much are you looking to get out of it? $5,000. With the boxes, yes. We're a little high. I have to tell you, the boxes definitely make it cool. But I'm going to have to make the assumption, though, that this watch was a marketing play. I mean, anything that time was really important to, Longines wanted to stamp their name on. If it was a Navy watch, it'd be a lot more intricate. It has a wind indicator, and it has a second hand. The railroad watches were more intricate than this. You think so? Absolutely. The Navy would need something a little bit more advanced than that. I'd offer you $2,500 for it. It's a little light. I could do $3,500. As time goes on, this name is getting more and more forgotten with the worse and worse stuff they put out. I'll go $3,000 on it. That's the best I can do. It really is. I can do $3,000. $3,000? All right, deal. Cool. Why don't you leave it here, and I'll meet you over there to write it up. I don't know if it was some marketing play, but he knows more than I do about a watch. So I think it was a fair price. Hopefully, we can do some good with that. What do we have here? This is something I found in my dad's underwear drawer. All right, do I want to see it? Yes, you do. This is a pocket watch. OK. And it has Henry Ford II's signature on it. That's really, really cool. The watch is 10 karat gold. It's 21 jewel, and it is signed by Henry Ford II. The watch really has no sentimental value, and I would really like the cash. Henry Ford II? He wasn't Henry Ford's son. He was Henry Ford's grandson. It turned out a little weird like that. Presented by Ford Motor Company to F. Weaver on the 35th anniversary. So was your dad F. Weaver? No. OK. Who was F. Weaver? I have no idea. OK. Back in the day, when people spent, like, so many years with a company, they'd generally give them a gold watch. And Ford Motor Company gave out these. American pocket watch industry was pretty cool. But the Swiss came up with these little things called wristwatches. When they first came out with them, they were not popular at all. So what the Swiss watch company started doing is they started paying really big actors, Hollywood stars, things like that, to start wearing wristwatches. So by the 1930s, pocket watches went out of style. OK. How much do you want for it? I'd like $1,200. Not going to happen. It doesn't have Henry Ford's signature on it. Henry Ford's signature is engraved on it. And I doubt if the CEO of Ford was going around engraving watches. You might think this is terrible. If I buy this watch off you, I'm not going to put it in my showcase. OK. I'm going to rip the gold out of it and sell it for scrap. Really? People who collect pocket watches want the older ones. OK. This is way too new. Would you do $400? Nope. You know, you have right around $230 worth of gold. I'm going to make a whopping $30 off you. It is what it is. $200, that's what I can do. Well, I guess you're going to make $30 off me then. OK. All right, $200. Bring it right over there, and I'll write you up. The only way I'm going to buy something that I can't sell in my shop is if it's made of gold and I can sell it to the scrap dealer. Hey, how's it going? I'm interested in selling a pocket watch I have. OK. Give me a second. Sure. Just put it on that for me. I have a very interesting pocket watch in the fact that it's a minute repeater. But what's really unique about it is the previous ownership. The engraving reads Wirt Dexter from his friend Henry W. King. I don't recognize the name. Well, Wirt Dexter was a very prominent attorney. Well, I've never met an attorney that didn't think he was important, so. That's for your aunt wrong there. I came down to the pawn shop today to hopefully sell my 18 karat gold, very unique, minute repeating pocket watch from the late 1800s. I've seen watches like this sell well over $10,000 for it. So I was hoping to get $8,000 for mine today. This is interesting. Well, pocket watches can get really, really complicated. And I'm not really that good with them. Do you mind if I have my dad come over and take a look? By all means. Hey, Pops. What? I need your nerdness. So you need my brilliance. Put on your Harry Potter glasses and look at this pocket watch, Mom. So where'd you get this? Well, I have a company that we buy gold and silver and wristwatches. And this pocket watch came along a couple of years ago. And I just took a liking to it. I kept it because I love the history behind it. Gentlemen whose names are in the watch, they were prominent multimillionaires. And after the Great Chicago Fire, these men got together to form a relief effort. OK. And it's a minute repeater? Yes. What exactly is a minute repeater? Minute repeaters were invented right around 1800. And there's a little slide on the side you can pull. It'll make various dings on the hours, quarters, and minutes to help tell time for the visually impaired or to tell time in the dark. Sort of gimmicky. They never really worked right. But this is probably made in the 1880s. It's a European movement. How do we know it's European? It more or less says it on the case. It says 18 carat fine. And the carat is spelled with a C. Everyone in Europe spells it with a C. We spell it with a K. Interesting. This is probably a Tissot. Tissot and other watch manufacturers were exporting watches to the United States. They generally did not put the name of the watch company on the movement because the jewelry store was going to put their name on it. OK. How much do you want for it? I was looking for $8,000. American pocket watches, 18 carat gold in this time period, can go up for like $10,000, $15,000. It's a European one. It's a generic movement. European watches were not built nearly as good as American pocket watches. American pocket watches, starting right around 1870, were the best watches in the world, hands down. Collectors of pocket watches in this country generally collect American watches. And like, they don't sell. They just don't. Wow. You know, I'd give you like $1,500 for it. Wow. Would you give me $4,000 for it? Nope. It would sit forever. Wow. OK, no one wears pocket watches. All right, I'm just going to let you go. I'll deal with it from here, OK? OK. All right. I'll tell you what, he said he paid $1,500. I'll go to $2,000. Can you go $23,000? Nope, I can go $2,000. And I'm doing, I'm being nice at that point. Well, I think the truth is. I'm being nice. I understand. I think I'm just going to keep it in my collection. I appreciate it, man. Take care. But thank you so much. Have a good day. The offer was so much less than I was expecting for $2,000. I'd rather just keep it. Hey, how you doing? Good, thanks. What do you got here? Well, I bought some Bradley watches in from some television shows from back in the 80s. I was just out hitting up some garage sales one day, and I came across these Mr. T watches I thought were really cool. You know, it is time for me to get a watch. Yeah, well, we got a nice little Cinderella one here if you're interested. Cinderella. That's you, John Wayne. I got about 150 of them, and after I got home, it's like, what the heck am I going to do with 150 watches? So I kept a few of them, and I'm just trying to sell a little here and there. I'm hoping to get a couple of hundred dollars for them. I'll be happy if I can walk out with 50 bucks, to actually tell you the truth. Yeah, the A team was legend when they came out. They had Mr. T, and he was just full of jewelry. I pity the fool. Well, that's definitely Mr. T, but I don't know how good you are at it. Are these Swiss made watches, boss? I wouldn't think so. These are mass produced, low grade watches. They were marketed to kids. They probably sold for $4.95, $5 at the time. The only thing that they got going for them is they're still in the package, because condition is everything for collectors. There is a market for them, but it's very limited. I don't know, boss. I feel like there's hipsters everywhere that would love to get their hands on one of these. They would actually wear them. Tell me, what in the hell is a hipster? It's a person that likes to believe they're doing cool things that aren't trendy. But actually, now hipsters are like the trendy thing, so they're actually all the same. Reminds me of a Big Nick, tell me. I don't know what that is, but probably. What do you want to do with them? I'd like to sell them. I've seen some of the Mr. T's actually selling for upwards of $30. I was kind of hoping to maybe get $200 for all 10. That's way high. What about $1.50? That's $15 a piece. Yeah. That's pretty fair for some old quartz watches. Well, if I'm lucky, I'll get $30 a piece out of them. Could we maybe do $180? $180 leaves a tight room for me to make a profit. The unpunched ones makes them a little bit more collective, and I know the Star Wars, I still have unpunched, too. Maybe $170? $150 is a no. How about cut the difference and do $160? Yeah, go ahead, chum. I can do $160. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll leave the watches with you, boss. Meet me at the counter over there. Well, I think I did OK, seeing I paid about $0.30 a piece for the watches, and I got $16 a piece bar. So I'm very happy. Hi there. Hey, how's it going? Not bad. I've got this antique pocket watch I think you might be interested in. That is one damn big watch. It is. It's pretty neat that it's made by Doxa. It's actually a Swiss company that's still around. Right. This is a little odd that you have such a huge case. It really is. Weighs a ton. You don't walk around with that in your pocket, that's for sure. During the Hungarian Revolution, my father was a freedom fighter and he had to leave the country really quick. And the only thing he was able to take was the pocket watch and the shirt on his back. I like it because it's very ornate. You don't see that kind of thing these days anymore. It's been sitting in the drawer for the last 20 years. Might as well make some use of it. I'm thinking I want $500 for it, and I don't think I'd take too much less for it. Today, Doxa is a pretty nice watch. I mean, it's not really high end. We're not talking about today. We're talking about this one. You have to realize that up until the late 1800s, the best watchmakers in the world were in England and they were in Switzerland. Right. And they just sort of got stagnant. You know, no innovation or anything like that. And then there was a big train accident in the 1890s. And it was all because a conductor's watch was off. Oh. So Congress passed some laws about how accurate railroad watches had to be, better than any watch in the world made at the moment. Right. So not only were they really innovative, they were forced to be innovative. Companies like Waltham, Hamilton, Illinois. So by 1910, it wasn't the Swiss watches. It was the American watches that were the best in the world, period. Hands down, there was no better. Oh, really? When you're collecting watches from this time period, what you really want is American watches. Wrist watches really didn't get popular until the 1920s, when some companies started paying Hollywood actors to start wearing them. After that, they got real popular, real fast. Hey, it's a silver case. Oh, it is silver, right? Oh, good. Yeah, well, most of the time, they didn't make the cases out of silver. They just made them out of, like, nickel. Right. This one's a really fancy case, so they made it out of silver. Yeah. This is something you'll see on the back of pocket watches a lot. It's a hunting scene. You can tell it's a European hunting scene, because they're hunting, like, wild boar, OK? There isn't a lot of places in the United States where you have that. The inscription says, Medal of Milan 1906, Liege 1905. So it's probably the city where this company got an award for its watches. What do you want to do with it? Oh, if you give me a fair price, I'll sell it. What do you consider a fair price? I was thinking around $500. That would be my bottom line. Normally, European pocket watches with a movement like this, just your standard run-of-the-mill ones with the silver case, I'd offer you $100. Really? But we got something really weird going on here. We have this big, like, presentation case. You never see a case like this. I mean, and it's really well-made. It's really well-preserved. Can I give you $400? I'm still sticking $500. This is my problem. The market for pocket watches is American pocket watches, OK? I'll have 50 guys come in here looking for American pocket watches before they're looking for European watches. Right. Will you go $450? You're killing me. $475, we've got a deal. Come on. Is that going to break you, an extra $25? Not going to break me, $475. Good man. Since he's basically low-balled me, I figured, OK, let's try and notch it up. I knew that he was a little more negotiable. What in the world do we got here? Well, it's an antique timer for racing pigeons. Dad, did you know they used to race pigeons? Yeah, they used to race pigeons. Don't pigeons carry, like, all kinds of diseases and are, like, the most disgusting animals on the planet? Not the ones you raise as pets. A rat in a cage is still a rat. I grew up around the pigeon racing. My dad was very passionate about it. He loved it. I'd like to sell it because I really don't have any wants to follow in my dad's footsteps. Least amount I'd probably take is about 100. So tell me more about pigeon racing. The group would get to a location where the function was going to be held. They'd put bands on their legs that identify the pigeons. Pigeons would be let off all at one time, and then they'd take off towards home. So how do you beat the pigeon home? Well, then you've got to drive pretty fast. Well, I see why it never caught on. It's way too complicated for pigeon racing. Way back in the day, they actually carried messages in battle. Spies used them. Basically, a pigeon could take a message across enemy lines. During World War II, some submarines kept a pigeon on board, and they would release it with a coded message if they were attacked. Believe it or not, pigeons have saved a lot of human lives. This is the little thing that they would carry? That's what you would put the band that's on their leg in. OK. Drop it in there. OK. Close the lid, and then crank that. And that would stamp the date and time on this. OK. You have a basic wind-up clock right here. It basically turns this right here and stamps numbers into it. Right. And you can see underneath here, it's got a cylinder for holding the different cartridges. So you could time 12 birds with this device. There's people out there who collect clocks, and they always want something different. It has more or less a standard clock movement in it, but the rest of it's pretty weird. I love it when items I've never seen before come to the shop, because I love to learn about cool, weird stuff like this. But it also makes it really hard for me to figure out a price. How much did you want for it? I'd like to try to get about $300. You know, there's not a huge market for these things. I'll give you $150 for it. You can't pay more than $50 for this. You're stupid. There is clock and watch collectors out there, and this is a different. That are just dying to have a pigeon clock? I'm not saying they're dying to have a pigeon clock, son. I'm just saying they like to collect different things, and this is different. Have fun. Pay whatever you want for it. I don't care. Do you have any kids? I've got two boys. Don't you love to hate them? Good days and bad days. Yeah. Well, how about if we go somewhere in the middle, around the $200 range? I'll give you $200 for it. All right? Sounds like a deal. OK. Thank you very much. Let's go right over here. We'll do some paperwork. All right. Thank you. I don't know what his disdain was for pigeons, other than the fact that they make messes on his car. But I've got $200 more in my pocket than I had before, so now I can go out and have some fun with it.