Rolex and the Great Escape

On 10 March 1943 Corporal Clive James Nutting, one of the organizers of the Great Escape, ordered a stainless steel Rolex Oyster 3525 Chronograph valued at a current equivalent of £1200 by mail directly from Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva, intending to pay for it with money he saved working as a shoemaker at the camp. The watch, (Rolex watch no. 185983), was delivered to Stalag Luft III on 4 August along with a note from Wilsdorf apologising for any delay in processing the order and explaining that an English gentleman such as Corporal Nutting "should not even think" about paying for the watch before the end of the war. Rolex had initially extended this wartime offer to all British officers prisoners of war and Hans Wilsdorf, who believed that a British officer's word was his contract, was in charge of the program. As an example, an estimated 3,000 Rolex watches were ordered by British officers in the Oflag (prison camp for officers) VII B POW camp in Bavaria. This offer had the effect of raising the morale among the allied prisoners of war because it indicated that Wilsdorf did not believe that the Nazis would win the war. Wilsdorf is reported to have been impressed with Nutting, because although not an officer, he had ordered the expensive Rolex 3525 Oyster chronograph while most other prisoners ordered the much cheaper Speed King model which was popular due to its small size. The watch is believed to have been ordered specifically to be used in the Great Escape, where as a chronograph it could have been used to time patrols of prison guards or time the 76 escapers through tunnel "Harry" on 24 March, 1944. Eventually, after the war, Nutting was sent an invoice of only £15 for the watch, due to currency export controls in England at the time. The watch and associated correspondence between Wilsdorf and Nutting were sold at auction for £66,000 in May 2007 while at an earlier auction on September 2006 the same watch fetched 54,000 AUSD. Nutting served as a consultant for both the 1950 film The Wooden Horse and the 1963 film The Great Escape. Both films were based on actual escapes which took place at Stalag Luft III.

www.swiss-wrist.com