FLauthor
Hero Member
- Aug 22, 2004
- 770
- 203
- Detector(s) used
- Excalibur 800; Fisher F5; White Beachmaster VLF
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
$52,000 in Rolex's near Disney World
31 years ago, I once lived near SR 535 & I-4 back in 1983. I went down to a Ski Beach on Lake Bryan and got permission to metal detect it. Found a lot of loose change and beer bottle caps. The owner came out to see how I did and told me a story that immediately got my attention. About 1981, the owner told a English man out for a run on his slalom course. They departed from where the Red dot is on the photo. The Slalom course lay north of the Yellow Dot and ended in the vicinity of the Yellow Dot. The Englishman made several run when he wiped out hard at the last buoy. To his dismay, he was shy of his Rolex watch. The guy hired a diver who searched the area but found nothing. So the Englishman returned to London and about a month later, the Ski boat owner gets a form from Lloyd's of London about the watch with a description of it. It was a Rolex Diamond Jubilee, 18K gold watch and band encrusted with diamonds on the bezel and all down the band, valued at in 1981 at $40,000 and it was a Autowind. I have a floating hookha unit and made a deal with the owner to split the sale of the watch if located. I spent a couple of months of Saturdays, in the afternoon after he was closed for the day and he'd sit in the boat reading his newspaper while I dived with my Excalibur. I had a method, I took a anchor with a 25 foot rope. I'd search the area where I placed the anchor in a circle so I would pick up interference from the metal anchor. Then I'd swim in a circle slowly digging every target. This was BLACK WATER diving, zero visibility, depth was about 7 feet deep. I was hunting a grid and found a lot of junk, a corroded DC-3 toy airplane was probably my best find but it was junk, boat parts, a broken propeller blade but no watch. How I wanted to find that watch and come up like Mel Fisher with it gleaming in the sunlight. It's been 31 years since I made the attempts and I'm too old to be traipsing out there diving alone. So I leave it to you young guys to seek it out.
There is a second Rolex out there but in deeper water about 15 feet deeper. It's a Rolex Submariner about where the Green dot is. The slalom skier took his watch off and handed it to the driver who put it on the dash as he made his run. The skier fell and the driver made a hard turn sending the Rolex watch skittering along the dash and over the side. That is probably a write off unless someone wants to conduct a grid search in 15 feet of water. These watches are impervious to water and both are Autowind so give them a shake and they'd start running again.
Here is the address: Buena Vista Watersports, 13245 Lake Bryan Dr, Orlando, FL 32821. Whoever finds it, please send me a photo and I'll take a percentage if you offer it after all who knew other than me.
Good luck and you'll need a lot of it.
Oops, I didn't buy the Excalibur until 1990. It was a Fisher Aquanaut. As far as the first diver keeping it, I don't think he used a Grid system like I did and we are talking about Black Water diving, zero visibility, you can not see your hand in front of your mask and it's a large area. A Bass or Catfish could have very well picked it up and moved it too, another theory. But it's Treasure and its never easy to find.
31 years ago, I once lived near SR 535 & I-4 back in 1983. I went down to a Ski Beach on Lake Bryan and got permission to metal detect it. Found a lot of loose change and beer bottle caps. The owner came out to see how I did and told me a story that immediately got my attention. About 1981, the owner told a English man out for a run on his slalom course. They departed from where the Red dot is on the photo. The Slalom course lay north of the Yellow Dot and ended in the vicinity of the Yellow Dot. The Englishman made several run when he wiped out hard at the last buoy. To his dismay, he was shy of his Rolex watch. The guy hired a diver who searched the area but found nothing. So the Englishman returned to London and about a month later, the Ski boat owner gets a form from Lloyd's of London about the watch with a description of it. It was a Rolex Diamond Jubilee, 18K gold watch and band encrusted with diamonds on the bezel and all down the band, valued at in 1981 at $40,000 and it was a Autowind. I have a floating hookha unit and made a deal with the owner to split the sale of the watch if located. I spent a couple of months of Saturdays, in the afternoon after he was closed for the day and he'd sit in the boat reading his newspaper while I dived with my Excalibur. I had a method, I took a anchor with a 25 foot rope. I'd search the area where I placed the anchor in a circle so I would pick up interference from the metal anchor. Then I'd swim in a circle slowly digging every target. This was BLACK WATER diving, zero visibility, depth was about 7 feet deep. I was hunting a grid and found a lot of junk, a corroded DC-3 toy airplane was probably my best find but it was junk, boat parts, a broken propeller blade but no watch. How I wanted to find that watch and come up like Mel Fisher with it gleaming in the sunlight. It's been 31 years since I made the attempts and I'm too old to be traipsing out there diving alone. So I leave it to you young guys to seek it out.
There is a second Rolex out there but in deeper water about 15 feet deeper. It's a Rolex Submariner about where the Green dot is. The slalom skier took his watch off and handed it to the driver who put it on the dash as he made his run. The skier fell and the driver made a hard turn sending the Rolex watch skittering along the dash and over the side. That is probably a write off unless someone wants to conduct a grid search in 15 feet of water. These watches are impervious to water and both are Autowind so give them a shake and they'd start running again.
Here is the address: Buena Vista Watersports, 13245 Lake Bryan Dr, Orlando, FL 32821. Whoever finds it, please send me a photo and I'll take a percentage if you offer it after all who knew other than me.
Good luck and you'll need a lot of it.Oops, I didn't buy the Excalibur until 1990. It was a Fisher Aquanaut. As far as the first diver keeping it, I don't think he used a Grid system like I did and we are talking about Black Water diving, zero visibility, you can not see your hand in front of your mask and it's a large area. A Bass or Catfish could have very well picked it up and moved it too, another theory. But it's Treasure and its never easy to find.
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