As Veterans’ Day approaches, pre-owned watch specialist Bob’s Watches is excited to auction a Rolex GMT Master that was bought in the late 1960s by Thomas Francis Finley Jr., a United States Navy vet who served for 28 years as a Navy Captain.
Captain Tom joined the Navy in October 1966 and piloted an H3 helicopter for a number of special operations including the retrieval of the astronauts from Apollo 14 after splashing down in the South Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971.
While on these missions he wore a Rolex GMT-Master ref. 1675 from circa 1968, which will be auctioned through the Bob’s Watches auction platform.
In addition to the GMT, Tom also managed to acquire acquire a number of historical artifacts to accompany the watch which will be included in the auction.
Captain Tom is the watch’s only owner.
He bought it in 1969 in Hong Kong at Artland Watch Co. while he was on a week-long “shore leave” from the Vietnam war.
According to Bob’s Watches, he decided to get a Rolex because his issued field watch flooded and he knew he needed a reliable watch.
He didn’t really know about watches, but heard from other service members that Rolex was the one to get and he did. He managed to keep the box and papers over all these years.
Captain Tom served was a co-pilot of the helicopter that recovered astronauts from the Apollo 14 mission, the third Apollo mission to land people on the moon, including Alan B. Shepard Jr, Stuart, A. Roosa, and Edgar G. Mitchell.
Captain Tom is now a volunteer at the USS Midway in San Diego and has been a docent for the last 17 years and an instructor on the ship for the last 15 years. He has logged nearly 8000 volunteer hours aboard.
The Rolex watch has an attractive estimate of $15,000 to $30,000.