First, I believe that the watch was indeed purchased at the Goodwill located at 4147 W Thunderbird Road in Phoenix. People raised questions on the Facebook post and on Watchuseek about the veracity of his claim of finding the watch at a Goodwill. I called the Goodwill store and told the person that answered the story and she in turn expressed shock before she referred me to a manager who said he would not confirm whether an item was sold at the store, but told me to describe the receipt over the phone and then verified that the information on the receipt sounded legitimate. After having spoken and corresponded with Zach over a period of a week, and the watch now being in Eric Ku's possession, I have no reason to doubt Zach's story. Yes, the Goodwill employees probably would have been able to determine that the watch was worth a lot more than $5.99 if they had simply searched for "LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm" online, but I would imagine that wasn't part of their standard protocol for putting for sale all the donated items they receive. I can imagine that searching Google for values and information would probably be a waste of time for the vast majority of items they receive, although I have heard that some Goodwill locations now ship out their watches to an e-commerce site.

Second, this certainly ranks as one of the great recent vintage watch finds I am aware of and these discoveries are part of what makes this hobby of watch collecting so fun and interesting. To give a few other examples of great finds, I know of someone who found a super-rare Blancpain AM Milspec watch in all-original condition for under $10 at a Salvation Army in the Kansas City area, I know a gentleman who paid $10 for a gold Vacheron Constantin wristwatch from the 1920s in a bucket of bric-a-brac at a Washington, DC flea market.I think one of the great historical finds was a World War I-era Omega wrist chronograph with service certificate purchased at an antique stall in Wales that was later on Antiques Roadshow in the UK and found to have been T.E. Lawrence's watch - the man popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia. The hunt is definitely part of the fun. And while people may generally recognize a brand name like Rolex, a name such as LeCoultre or any number of other brands may remain obscure to most people and as a result are more likely to be found in these sorts of scenarios.

Third, there is no question that the Deep Sea Alarm is one of the hottest watches on the planet. Just a few years ago, basically no one had heard of these outside of dedicated Jaeger-LeCoultre collectors. Less than a decade ago, DSAs were selling for $1,000 to $2,000. It's amazing how much they have appreciated recently. Zach was flooded with offers just as Hampton Estate Auction told us they were flooded with inquiries after I wrote about their two DSAs coming up for auction. In sum, credit is due to Zach for spotting an amazing watch in a less than likely setting, and to Eric for offering him fair market price for the watch and buying him his dream watch that he can wear every day.

Now excuse me while I head out to my local Goodwill store.

[UPDATE: In response to a lot of comments about whether Zach would make a donation to Goodwill, I reached out to Zach today to ask him about it and he told me he did make a donation to the store. He is keeping the amount he gave private.]