Imagine dropping an ultra-expensive luxury timepiece in the sea. The odds of retrieving the watch would be next to nothing; after all, the search would be like finding a needle in a haystack. However, a lucky Patek Philippe owner was reunited with his prized possession a year later after it slipped off his wrist while he was jumping off a boat into the sea. A hobby diver named Giorgio tracked down the watch using a metal detector and his diving skills. The incident took place in the summer of 2023 when a traveler lost his Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time while he was swimming off the Spanish coast near Mallorca.
According to a report by Time and Tide, the watch that slipped off the wrist of the traveler appears to be a stainless steel Aquanaut Travel Time 5164A. While the retail price of the timepiece was a little over US$40,000, it currently trades for anywhere between $75,000 and $80,000 on the pre-owned market. Irrespective of its monetary or sentimental value, the owner – a Danish collector – wanted to find his lost Patek Philippe and tasked a hobby diver named Giorgio to track down the timepiece.
Giorgio and his girlfriend run a hobby diving business called Mallorca Detecting, which helps people find lost valuables off the sunny Mallorca coast. Apparently, the diver has come up with a homemade numbered grid system using plastic bottles to logically approach the search. Finding the watch was not going to be easy. There were many false flags as the metal detector picked up metal scraps and cans stuck in the seabed.
However, after 3 dives and nine long hours, Giorgio managed to find the watch that was found hidden in seagrass 33 feet underwater. The retrieved watch was covered in corals and showed signs of rust. But it looks like the Patek Philippe can be brought back to its former glory. Luckily, it was found very close to the spot where it was lost, even after staying underwater for a year.
