This is one of the most endearing stories we’ve ever come across which might soon get its deserved happy ending thanks to a generous watch specialist. James Steele, a British dairy farmer, lost his beloved Rolex in the 1970s while bringing in his cows for milking. He had bought the Rolex Air-King in the 1950s for about 100 British pounds with all the extra money he had saved from milk deliveries in his early 20s. On an unfortunate day, the Rolex broke off his wrist and fell into a grassy pasture. When the Rolex couldn’t be located even after searching it for days, a vet told Steele that it might have ended up in a cow’s stomach. The dejected dairy farmer gave up the search and replaced the Rolex.
Five decades later, a metal detector enthusiast named Liam King was able to find the watch on the family’s land in Shropshire, England, reuniting Steele, now 95 years old, with his long-lost Rolex. “I’d written it off,” Steele said. “I never thought I’d see it again, but I was over the moon when the detector found it.”
The Rolex had passed through a cow’s digestive system and stayed hidden in a field for around fifty years, so it was bound to be in terrible condition. The case had rusted over the years and had dents all over, while the white dial had turned yellow. The crystal was also badly scratched and had even developed a crack.
A Dutch specialist in mechanical watches named Kalle Slaap learned about this incredible story from British media and immediately decided to help. He contacted Steele’s family and offered to restore the Rolex for free. The Air-King was brought to his workshop in Grootschermer, North Holland, where he has been working on it for the last two months. Obviously, the job was never going to be easy. Slaap has been documenting the whole restoration process on his YouTube channel, showing us the complexities of this remarkable project.
The restoration of the case has already been successfully carried out by Slaap. The watch specialist carefully polished the steel case to remove rust while retaining the original imperfections. The crystal was badly damaged and had to be removed, while he used isopropyl alcohol and a glass fiber pen to carefully remove rust from the caseback. Slaap decided to retain the dial’s patina to preserve the history of the watch.
According to the Dutchman’s latest update video, he is currently working on restoring the movement of the Rolex, which appears to be in very bad shape. Removing the rust from all the delicate components without damaging them needs a lot of skills and patience. In the video, Slaap can be seen using a microscope and precision tools to carefully remove rust from the movement.
The watch specialist compared the process with restoring a painting, which requires extreme precision and a lot of time. However, the latter is not something that Slaap has in his favor. After all, the dairy farmer is already at a delicate age of 95. “I promised: before Christmas, the gentleman will have the watch on his wrist. With the entire team, we will then bring it to England,” Slaap said. We hope the story gets its happy ending soon.
[You can follow the restoration process here]
