If you collect watches for any length of time (or any other collectable, for that matter) there invariably comes a time when you let a watch go that you wish you hadn't.  This was an awesome watch that is perhaps the rarest watch I will ever own.  It currently resides in Australia with a great guy and big-time collector to whom I sold it a few years ago. If you check the serial number you will see that this watch is among one of the absolute first Seadwellers ever!  It is a "patent pending" watch.  Notice how the inside of the caseback - marked 1969 - has the last three numbers of the serial number on it. Of course, I don't totally regret it, as its sale allowed me to buy my first Patek Philippe, pictured below.

As I have always said, most great watches have great stories.  I don't know the full story of this watch, but it is certainly a great story from the time I found it. My wife and I were in New Orleans (where she is from) in late December 2000 and early January 2001.  We were there for the Sugar Bowl between my undergraduate alma mater LSU and Big 10 champion Illinois.  It was a good time, as LSU smoked the Illini (not quite as nice as the Sugar Bowl three years later, which we also attended). Anyway, I often pop my head into local pawn shops to see what they have.  On this day, which was the last day before the New Year holiday, I walked into one that I had been in many times before.  I looked at the Rolexes that they had on display, but all that was there were overpriced Datejusts and Presidents - asking prices that you would never pay online.  Just before I walked out I asked the girl behind the counter - more as an afterthought - if they had anything else.  She said that they had just gotten a Seadweller in, but that it was likely sold. I was almost positive that it was going to be a fairly recent model that would also be overpriced, but I said that I'd like to see it.  She disappeared into the back and brought out this watch. Well, I'm not sure my poker face held up, but I like to think it did.  I asked her if it was indeed sold and she told me that the owner had a friend who had indicated that he probably wanted it.  It was not a done deal, however.  I asked what they needed to get for it and she told me they were asking $1800.  Now I'm kind of fandreaking out on the inside.  I'm still ok on the outside, though. I asked her when she thought she would know for cetain whether it was sold.  She went into the back again and came out with the owner.  He told me that he was going to clean the watch up over the holiday and that I should check back after the holiday, which - if memory serves - was a Monday.  I didn't want to look over anxious, so I said ok and went on my way. Man, was that a long weekend.  We had a great time, but that Double Red Seadweller sat staunchly in the back of my mind the entire time.  As I said, the game was great, but I was looking forward to Monday. Monday morning I showed up a few minutes after opening and ran into the owner.  I told him that I was about to leave town and wanted to check back on the Seadweller before I left.  He picked up the phone and called his guy right there in front of me.  I heard his half of the conversation, which made it clear that he was waking his friend up.  Basically, there was a "fish or cut bait" speach because he had a customer there with cash in hand.  The friend hemmed and hawed and then relented.  The watch was mine if I wanted it! I said that I would take it and asked what the best price he could offer would be.  I walked out of that pawn shop with this watch having paid less than $1700!