“They said, ‘we don’t have any more dive watches,’ but I asked him for something, anything, to take the time. He said, ‘here’s a box of watches, pick something out.’ And I picked the only two that worked.”

It just so happens that one of the two watches was an incredibly rare Tornek-Rayville. The watch was recently consigned by Lt. Economy for sale at Sotheby’s (Lot 81, up for auction June 9th) and comes with a variety of items that bolster the watch’s history and provenance (including a diving regulator and Cressi-sub scuba mask, Department of Navy SCUBA certifications, dog tags, medals, photographs, name tape, rank insignia, and more). Provenance on a military watch doesn’t get much better than this.

My colleague Tony Traina rightfully put these military-issued TR-900s at the top of his “grail” category in his recent collector’s guide on Fifty Fathoms watches. Any “average” Tornek-Rayville has a fascinating history. With Swiss watch companies stifled by the “Buy American Act” of 1933 (requiring U.S. military goods to be bought from the United States), Allen Tornek found a creative solution. He imported watches from “Rayville” – an anagram of the town of Villeret where Blancpain was headquartered – with a new name. Otherwise, the watch was just a good-old Blancpain. 

Only roughly 1,000 of the Tornek-Rayville model were made, and since almost every watch was military-issued and heavily used – and despite the stringent requirements of use and durability the watches needed to meet to be issued – very few of them survived.

One benefit the watch had towards its survival was that it took 22 years from the first time a TR-900 was put into service with the U.S. military for this specific watch to be issued to Lt. Economy in 1988. It’s not exactly clear why it took so long for the watch to be issued, but regardless it sat around until, eventually, this specific watch had become everyone’s last choice. Furthermore, Lt. Economy didn’t even realize it was worth some serious money until a few months ago.

The great condition of the watch is not anywhere near a reflection that Lt. Economy babied the watch. There’s obvious wear, especially on the crystal, but the case shows it too. The dial, hiding under the scratched crystal, looks fantastic, and the bezel seems to be in surprisingly great shape. Lt. Economy isn’t sure how it held up the way it did.

“Using this watch was for military operations only, not for around town,” he said. “It was in the bag with my dive gear, and that’s it. It was with me on little black boats in the middle of the ocean, the Baltic, the Gulf, France, Germany, all over Asia, the Indian Ocean… Whether it was used in an op there, I can neither confirm nor deny. It went through all the rigors of the job, the bad weather, day and night. I remember deploying from the USS Inchon at midnight, and the watch was glowing, just like the jellyfish glowed in the ocean.”

Of the more incredible stories of where the watch was worn, the wildest may have been that it was on his wrist as he worked with his trained US Navy partner: a sea-mine hunting dolphin named Nino.

The case has a crude engraving on the 9:00, the watch’s “low mu” engravings, showing the watch had passed “magnetic and acoustic signature control for mine warfare (MIW) (U)” testing in July ’82 and again in June of ’87. It’s an incredibly important certification for someone like Lt. Economy. Mines were often sensitive to acoustic signatures or magnetism, so reducing these concerns was key. But even if the watch was old, it remained useful. “When you would go diving with old dive rigs,” said Lt. Economy, “you’d go diving with this watch because they were all tested to and engraved with the same rating.”

When I asked Lt. Economy if he found it strange that his watch might be worth more with his story attached, he waived it off, telling me about the feelings that informed his decision to join the service at 17 and fight for and defend his country. “Forget my name. Remember what I stood for,” he told me.

Finally, I asked Lt. Economy if he felt sad letting the watch go. He told me he is still holding on to that other watch he grabbed from the bin back in the late ’80s – a Benrus. That watch will stay in the family and is engraved “B. Economy, U.S. Navy” for both himself and his son, who will soon be going to BUD/S and shares his father’s first initial. Watches with a story like this don’t come around very often, and I’ll be watching closely to see how it does against the $80,000 to $100,000 estimate.