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 rarity
The 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 historically important because it was one of the first diving watches with an internal mechanical alarm that warned divers when it was time to return to the surface. Goodwill had priced the watch at just $5.99, placing it among ordinary discarded items. Norris bought it immediately. He told local news station KTVK that he was so careful with the watch that he hardly wanted the cashier to touch it during checkout. “Sometimes they just miss it, they don’t know,” Norris told KTVK, explaining how such a valuable watch ended up in a bargain bin. “It’s not a very fancy-looking piece. You have to know what it is.”
Authenticating the bargain finding
After taking the watch home, Norris posted photos of his $5.99 find in a vintage watch group on Facebook. The post quickly spread through the watch community and attracted interest from collectors around the world. To check whether the watch was genuine, Norris took it to Oliver Smith Jeweler, an authorized Jaeger-LeCoultre retailer in Scottsdale, Arizona. A local watchmaker opened the caseback and confirmed that it contained a genuine and clean LeCoultre K815 mechanical movement. Although the hour hand had some minor cosmetic wear, the watch still had its original, unpolished case and a well-preserved aluminum bezel. The internal alarm also still worked, vibrating and making a sound as it was designed to do. Hodinkee editor Eric Wind contacted Norris directly and advised him about the watch’s real market value, helping ensure that the lucky buyer would not be taken advantage of by dealers looking for a quick profit.
Closing a life changing transaction
Private buyers quickly began making offers, but one deal stood out. Eric Ku, a well-known vintage watch dealer and collector based in California, offered Norris more than $35,000 for the watch. Ku already had a nearly perfect example of the LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm. However, he wanted an original watch in honest condition that he could wear regularly without worrying about damaging a museum-quality example. Norris accepted the deal with two conditions. The package had to include an Omega Speedmaster Professional, and he wanted to deliver the LeCoultre himself instead of sending it through the mail. Norris flew to the San Francisco area and personally handed the watch to Ku. In return, he received the cash payment and the Omega Speedmaster. The money helped pay for his wedding to his fiancée, Leandra Knudson. Norris also gave part of his profits back to Goodwill.
