Just received this watch in the mail today from my aunt. The story goes, my grandfather purchased 2 of these watches back in 1973, one for my father, which he gifted to me on my 40th birthday, and the second was for my aunt's husband. They are identical twins, purchased at the same time from the same jeweler, some 44 years ago. I have posted a few pictures of mine over the years on this forum as it is by far my prized possession. However, this post is not about mine, rather about it's twin brother. My aunt's husband who was a doctor, passed away about 6 years ago. The watch, as I'm told, had been stored away for years because the band had snapped. Additionally, the watch was in desperate need of service as evident from the light fogging inside the crystal. The pushers have hardened somewhat as well from years dirt and grime buildup. My brother and I knew the existence of the second watch in the family, but had not seen it in years and didn't know its whereabouts. About a month ago, in a casual phone conversation between my brother and my aunt, he inquired about the watch. To his surprise, my aunt had the watch stored in a safe and asked if he was interested in taking ownership. He didn't feel right in accepting, but my aunt insisted due to the unique history, so that the 2 watches would be "reunited". So, today as luck would have it, unbeknownst to either one of us, the watch arrived in the mail while I was visiting my brothers house. We were both struck at it's originality and the added bonus in the package, which included the original box and papers. Here are some quick snaps. I wasn't wearing mine so no family shot was possible. Here is mine:
Super family history… Gently & sympathetically serviced & restored, that will look utterly superb Congratulations !!
Two examples of one fantastic looking watch. Hopefully they will stay in the family for many more generations to come.
Dibs?...... Lol What a fantastic thing to have the two watches shared by two brother of the same family
Thank you everyone for the kind words, I'm still a bit over the moon about the whole story. I'm curious as well, I will be taking them to my watchmaker some time over the Christmas holiday and will provide an update. My brothers (the newly acquired watch) has a 31,319,xxx serial number per the warranty paper.
@cristos71- took both watches to my watchmaker, the serial #'s are within 3 of each other, 3x,xxx,202 & 3x,xxx,205! Here is the family shot, the second watch is now being serviced and cleaned up a bit.
That's cool Only 3 apart, amazing! Here's my un-matching pair, serial's 713 apart. The Anakin is 32202111
Leave it to OF arch-villain to have a dark side/light side pair! Stunning! @ATWG - I don't mind you only posting partial serial numbers, but perhaps you should be a bit more consistent in which numbers to reveal...