Rolex has built a reputation for producing high-quality timepieces that are engineered to perform over the decades. This quality is evident in the 1970s when 95-year-old British dairy farmer James Steele lost his precious Rolex while working with cattle on his farm.

Local British media reported Scottish FarmerAfter a five-decade journey through the digestive tract of one of his cows exposed to the harshness of the unforgiving British climate, technology and luck combined to help a seasoned farmer turn back the clock.

Farmer who lost his RolexAfter years of saving and excitement, James Steele was finally able to purchase the watch he had coveted in the 1950s. It was a Rolex Air-King Super Precision 5500, which he had painstakingly saved up by making milk deliveries in his early 20s and paid around £100 for (just over €116 at current exchange rates).

But one unfortunate day, while he was working with his cattle, the clock’s latch came loose and fell into a grassy pasture on the outskirts of his farm in Oswestry, Shropshire, halfway between Birmingham and Liverpool.

Despite searching for it for several days, Steele eventually gave up on the watch and had no choice but to replace it with another. A local vet even suggested that it might have fallen into a cow’s stomach, making it less likely to recover. “When I went and got the new watch, I never thought I’d see the old one again,” Steele said. Sun.

Treasure hunter finds needleThe loss of James Steele’s old Rolex has become a family story, with James’ son Andrew now taking over the farm. Andrew told the watch blog: Horolonomics To search for James’ famous Rolex, he contacted metal-hunting enthusiast Liam King, who had found some coins on his land in the past.

King completed his mission and, armed with a metal detector, found the missing watch on Steele’s family’s land. The discovery reunited Steele with his Rolex, which he had lost fifty years earlier. “I had deleted it. I never thought I’d see it again, but when the detector found it, I was so happy.” The owner believes the Rolex had passed through the four stomachs of a cow and remained hidden in the field for fifty years.

Back, but at what priceIf it is true that the watch was part of the diet of one of his cows, it is not hard to imagine the state in which the owner found the watch: the case was rusty and dented all over, the once white dial had turned yellow, and the glass was so scratched and distorted that even a crack was visible.

There was also no trace of the bracelet (the prime suspect in the disappearance of the Rolex) or the crown, which had been under cows’ hooves for five decades, facilitating water seepage into the watch’s interior.

Twitch is repairing what time has destroyedThe farmer’s son Andrew had been watching Dutch mechanical watch restoration expert Kalle Slaap’s Twitch streams. After his surprising reunion with James’ lost Rolex, he didn’t hesitate to consult the expert.

When he heard the unusual story about Steele and his Rolex, he decided to intervene and offered to restore the experienced farmer’s Rolex free of charge. The watch was taken to Slaap’s workshop in Grootschermer (Netherlands), where the expert watchmaker has been working on the restoration for the past two months, documenting the entire process in different videos published on his YouTube channel.

Restoring is not repairingThe process of restoring Steele’s Rolex Air King was not going to be an easy one. Slaap decided to preserve the watch’s history by preserving as many of its original parts as possible. Rather than replace it, the restorer chose to preserve the patina on the watch face as a testament to its journey.

Likewise, the expert carefully polished the steel case to remove rust while preserving the original imperfections that time had added. Given the poor condition of the glass, there was no choice but to replace it.

The expert likens the process to restoring a painting, which also requires extreme precision and a lot of time. However, the owner’s increasing age works against him. So the Dutch restorer promised to return the watch to Steele before Christmas, ensuring “the gentleman has the watch on his wrist”.

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Image | Pexels (cottonbro studio), Rolex