An Arizona man looking for a used golf cart at a local charity shop left with a rare 1950s diving watch that earned him more than $35,000. Zach Norris bought the vintage LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm for $5.99 after finding it face down in a basket of battery-powered watches at a Goodwill store in Phoenix. Days later, he gave the watch to a well-known collector in California and received $35,000 in cash plus his personal dream watch, an Omega Speedmaster Professional.
Norris knew the LeCoultre name because of his interest in vintage watches, according to detailed reporting by watch publication Hodinkee. The deal turned an ordinary thrift store trip into a life-changing windfall, giving Norris the money he needed for his upcoming wedding. However, he initially did not realize how rare the watch was or how much it was worth.
After taking the watch home, Norris posted photos of his $5.99 find in a vintage watch group on Facebook. A local watchmaker opened the caseback and confirmed that it contained a genuine and clean LeCoultre K815 mechanical movement. The post quickly spread through the watch community and attracted interest from collectors around the world. To check whether the watch was genuine, Norris took it to Oliver Smith Jeweler, an authorized Jaeger-LeCoultre retailer in Scottsdale, Arizona. the watch still had its original, unpolished case and a well-preserved aluminum bezel Although the hour hand had some minor cosmetic wear. The internal alarm also still worked, vibrating and making a sound as it was designed to do. Hodinkee editor Eric Wind contacted Norris directly and advised him about the watch’s real market value, helping ensure that the lucky buyer would not be taken advantage of by dealers looking for a quick profit.