Rare ‘submarine’ Rolex up for £120k at auction

A Rolex issued by the Ministry of Defence may fetch £120,000 at auction after sitting in a drawer for decades.

The Rolex 5513/5517 Military Submariner is one of 1,200 issued by the MOD, mainly for use by Navy submariners and their divers. Only 120 to 180 of the watches are thought to still exist.

The watch was issued to a former Royal Navy diver in the 1970s and bought in the 1980s by its owner, a Perthshire diving enthusiast who chose to stay anonymous. The bezel fell off in a dive in 1996 and it was then stored in a chest of drawers. The watch is expected to sell for between £80,000 to £120,000 at Bonhams.