In 2015, a US man paid $5.99 for a watch; after it was confirmed authentic, he sold it for $35,000

An Arizona man looking for a used golf cart at a local charity shop left with a rare 1950s diving watch that earned him more than $35,000. Zach Norris bought the vintage LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm for $5.99 after finding it face down in a basket of battery-powered watches at a Goodwill store in Phoenix. Days later, he gave the watch to a well-known collector in California and received $35,000 in cash plus his personal dream watch, an Omega Speedmaster Professional. The deal turned an ordinary thrift store trip into a life-changing windfall, giving Norris the money he needed for his upcoming wedding. According to detailed reporting by watch publication Hodinkee, Norris knew the LeCoultre name because of his interest in vintage watches. However, he initially did not realize how rare the watch was or how much it was worth.Uncovering a horological rarityThe watch Norris found in the store's bin on West Thunderbird Road was a LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm from around 1959. Swiss company Jaeger-LeCoultre made fewer than 1,000 examples of this model for the American market. The watches were marked simply "LeCoultre" to meet United States import rules at the time. The reference 857 was also histo...