Rolex Watches And "the Great Escape".

[stuey]

Here's a really interesting item regarding the above; there are also other interesting things in the same article. Scroll down to "Watches for POWs...Great Escape". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex#Watches_for_POWs_and_help_in_the_Great_Escape

[Peter Pedant]

Hi Stuey
I contributed to your holiday camp thread

and yes my late father was at Eichstatt ( VIIB ) - then Spangenburg - Laufen, Thorn/Torun, back to Spangenburg and finally Nuremberg.

and he notes: " Rolex watches could be bought by mail order and paid for after the war. This ws good business on the part of the Swiss and at that time showed a lot of faith in the allied cause. However a Jewish doctor acquired somehow and somewhere a catalogue for Longine watches. They were certainly elegant and he relieved the boredom of captivity by selling them - it was as far as I could see a purely theoretical exercise but filled in time. His sales pitch went like this....."

This is a different slant on the wiki article

O god I have forgotten time in Graz (poland again ) and Rotenburg.....

written 1972 from memories of 1942

[stuey]

I'm glad you found the article interesting, Peter. It seems that your father must have had some stories to tell about the war. I wonder if Cpl. Clive Nutting was portrayed by an actor in the movie, and if so, by whom. Next time I see The Great Escape I'm going to watch out for that watch.

[retrocop]

Stuey
Can't understand how the ferrets would confiscate existing watches on capture but allow better replacements undoubtedly via the Red Cross to be retained by the POW's unless squirrelled away with all the other escape equipment.

[tamborine]

Any replacements for mugged watches....

[Mamyalynne]

Very interesting piece to read Stuey, thanks.

[stuey]

That crossed my mind also, Retro. Here is a copy of the letter to Cpl Nutting. It seems that he was a cobbler in the camp and did not participate in the Escape. He died in Australia at the age of 90. I found the murder inquiry involving a Rolex also interesting. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/you-must-not-even-think-of-settlement.html

[aimfan]

Better to go for Aimant Life Brand. https://bit.ly/2OTEhbh