War and timepiece: Great Escape PoW’s watch to sell for £50k

A ROLEX watch which belonged to one of the Great Escape PoWs is expected to fetch £50,000 at auction.

War hero ... Flt Lt John Williams

Flt Lt John Williams had bought it “on tick” while captive in an extraordinary piece of marketing by the Swiss watchmaker.

Boss Hans Wilsdorf had offered watches to captured British fliers to replace ones taken by the Germans.

Rolex owned by Flt Lt John Williams, which was handed to his parents

RAF officer John, known as Jack, ordered a top of the range Rolex Chronograph watch, which he gave to a friend for safe-keeping on the night of his bid for freedom.

But he was caught and was one of 50 executed for their part in the break-out, immortalised in 1963 Steve McQueen film The Great Escape.



Jack’s pal Sgt Donald Wilson handed the watch to his parents after World War Two. Martyn Perrin, of Bourne End Auctions, Bucks, said: “He asked Don to take care of his Rolex and take it home.

“The watch would have been a bit of a giveaway as he was meant to be a peasant.”

Flt Lt Williams was executed after the break-out

Jack was the 67th man into the 336ft tunnel in March 1944. Only another nine made it into the tunnel after him before the escape was discovered.

He signed up for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Pilot Officer in 1940, aged 22.

After joining Bomber Command he took part in daylight raids on occupied Europe, once being mentioned in dispatches.

But on April 27, 1942, during an attack on a power station near Lille, in northern France, his bomber was shot down. Jack was taken prisoner and transferred to Stalag Luft III.

Here he took part in digging the famous tunnels codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry  helping to secretly disperse tons of soil through special pouches under his clothing.

Meanwhile German-born Wilsdorf, the boss and founder of Rolex in London in 1905, had spotted a literally captive market for his products.

Williams, left, with fellow inmates in Stalag Luft III

 When he heard that most RAF PoWs had their Rolexes “confiscated”, he made them a “buy now, pay whenever” offer to replace them. All they had to do was to write to Rolex, explain how their watch was taken, promise to pay and it would be sent to them in a Red Cross parcel.

Steve McQueen in The Great Escape

Jack’s parents passed on his watch to his third cousin as he reminded them of the flier.

The unnamed cousin wore it on his wedding day and on a visit to the Stalag Luft III camp in Zagan, Poland.
And when, in 1984, the watch stopped working, Rolex serviced it free of charge.

The watch, with its original guarantee card, goes under the hammer on Wednesday.