In this world where everything is available via a simple Google search, it can feel like there are no mysteries left. Everything seems to have been found, cataloged, and accounted for. But, luckily, this is not so, as one observant man found when he recently stepped into a Phoenix, Arizona, Goodwill shop looking for a push-pull golf cart. Instead he found a watch that turned out to be worth $35,000.

The 1959 LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm/Hodinkee.

In a bin of dusty, mundane quartz watches, Zach Norris spotted a Deep Sea Alarm from Jaeger-LeCoultre, something the watch aficionado knew was worth just a bit more than its $5.99 price tag. Though he snapped it up immediately, he was still unaware that he now owned one of the most sought-after LeCoultre watches ever made.

Fewer than 1,000 LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm watches were made for sale in the United States, and further, as he found when he took it to an authorized dealer, this one was old, dating to about 1959, the first year this model was made. The watch also features one of the first examples of vibrating alarms used by divers underwater.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

All of this attracted the attention of Rolex dealer and collector Eric Ku, who offered Norris $35,000 (about 6,000 times what he paid for it) and an Omega Speedmaster Professional for the rare find, an offer he gladly accepted.

The 1959 LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm next to Zach Norris's new Omega Speedmaster Professional/Hodinkee.

[H/T Hodinkee

Andrew D. Luecke Style Editor, Esquire Digital Before coming to esquire.com, Andrew D.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io