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We don’t do this often – make a public call to arms for the watch collecting community – but when there is a wrong that needs to be righted, we must use the voice that you’ve given us to help. So, I deeply encourage you to read on and share this story with as many people as you can.
The name Carl Spencer may not be familiar to you unless you happen to follow the careers of working divers, but I assure you, the name rings loudly to those who know. Spencer was among the most talented professional divers of the modern era, and completed both scientific and filming missions to the likes of the Titanic aboard the mission led and financed by James Cameron, the Carpathia, and the Britannic, among others. He helped film documentaries for the Discovery and History channels, as well as National Geographic. He co-led joint military expeditions between the Royal Navy and British Army.
On May 29, 2009, while diving on the Brittanic, he suffered equipment failure and was forced to surface quickly. As a result, Carl Spencer died that day due to the bends (acute decompression sickness). While Spencer was known the world over for his heroic diving, he led a relatively quiet life in suburban England while above ground – he was a heating and air-conditioning engineer. When Spencer died, he was survived by his wife and young son who, without the income from Carl’s business, fell on hard times. As a result, his wife sold the Rolex Sea-Dweller that accompanied Carl on so many of his dives at a Fellows auction in 2012. It sold for just over 4000 with little fan fare.
What’s more, Carl was a watch nut! He loved his Doxas (how could he not as a diver?) but his pride and joy was the Sea-Dweller we see above. His friend and co-diver on several of Spencer’s exhibitions was David Concannon, who reached out to us via Facebook about this whole matter. He said “Carl and I were both huge Rolex fans and collectors, and we both felt strongly about giving our watches to our sons. Carl and I had lengthy discussions about this. I had been in a motorcycle accident the year before we went to Titanic together in 2003, and my then 6-year-old son had asked me to please take care of my Rolex Submariner, which had already dived to Titanic and was beaten up in the accident, because he would like to have it some day. Carl was adamant that his new Rolex Sea-Dweller, which he had graduated to after collecting Doxas (thanks to Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt character), would go to his young son Ben when he was old enough to appreciate it.”
His son Ben is now 16 years old, and the loss of his father and indeed the Rolex his father had intended to give him haunts him to this day, and nothing would make him happier than to purchase back the watch that was sold that day. Unfortunately, requests to Fellows – the auction house which handled the sale – about who purchased this watch that day haven’t been answered, according to Concannon and the family. Which brings us to today.
We know what this watch looks like. We even know the reference number and the serial number. And that is why we are here to ask all of you to share this story in hopes it makes it to the new owner of Carl Spencer’s Rolex Sea-Dweller.
The watch we are looking for is a Rolex Sea-Dweller reference 16600, with serial number Y882641. You can see it above, and as we stated earlier, it was sold via Fellows on January 23, 2012 as lot 225. You can see the lot here. If you have any information on this watch or know anyone that might, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us at Contact@hodinkee.com. Now let’s see if we can’t get this Rolex back to where it belongs, on the wrist of Ben Spencer.
For more on Carl Spencer and what he meant to his friends at colleagues, watch this short film on the crew’s return to Brittanic for the first time after his passing.
Article from: Wristwatch News, Reviews, & Original Stories — HODINKEE, by Benjamin Clymer
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