GUEST: I brought my stepfather's Rolex watch that I found with a bunch of medals and everything. He was a POW in World War II at Sagan, Germany, in Stalag Luft III.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: And that's the one that this book was written, and that's the one that the movie was based on.
APPRAISER: Now that's the famous movie The Great Escape with Steve McQueen, a very famous and iconic movie. And your stepfather, he was the real... Cooler King.
GUEST: He wrote his own book, Sage, but this one, Paul Brickhill was one of the POWs and he wrote about them.
APPRAISER: Okay, and if we open the book to this page, he is... Upper left.
GUEST: This was a friend of his that did a sketch, and then a painting, you know, with the supplies they had.
APPRAISER: How long was he in the prison camp in Germany?
GUEST: Well, first of all, Stalag Luft III I'm not really sure of how long he actually was in that one because he really was in the OSS, he was a spy. And if they knew he was a spy they would execute him.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: So he posed as a pilot. When he was getting captured he got rid of all his OSS stuff. He had been working behind enemy lines in North Africa making manure bombs to delay the Nazis as they were coming. He was captured several times and was in solitary confinement 15 times. But he did survive.
APPRAISER: He did survive. He escaped.
GUEST: He escaped several times and got caught. The final one was after this incident happened. He was in charge of getting rid of the sand while they were digging the tunnels, but he was not one of the 75 that escaped that night. I'm not sure, he probably was in solitary confinement again.
APPRAISER: And the movie was based on these experiences, and they got a lot of the stories and information from him.
GUEST: They did.
APPRAISER: They did. The watch does date to the end of World War II. It is 1940s.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: It is a Rolex.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: It is a chronograph watch-- it has two buttons that operate chronograph functions on the face, which are the side dials and the sub dial. It's a stainless steel case, typical of what they would have worn during the war or during that period. Now, what makes this watch special is that it has an original black dial, which is very rare. We do not see it on watches of this time period. So that adds quite a bit of the value and quite a bit of interest to it. It makes it more unusual and highly sought after by collectors. It's a wonderful watch, condition is wonderful. So now...
GUEST: Yes?
APPRAISER: I see-- I know you're waiting. This watch today, I feel this will sell very easily at auction between $40,000 to $50,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh.
APPRAISER: Don't fall out of the chair on me now.
GUEST: No, I started to say. Okay.
APPRAISER: I did say $40,000 to $50,000.
GUEST: $50,000?
APPRAISER: It is an exceptional watch, it's a rare watch, the story is wonderful.
GUEST: Mercy. (chuckles) Thank you.
APPRAISER: You're welcome.
GUEST: That is... oh, my goodness. I love this show.
