A $10,000 Rolex allegedly gifted by composer Hans Zimmer was pulled from the ashes of a Pacific Palisades home — and brought back to life in miracle restoration posted to YouTube.
The beloved 2015 Rolex Sea Dweller was a prized possession, worn every day for the past decade by its owner — who’s also believed to work in the music industry — until the Pacific Palisades fire tore through his home earlier this year, taking most of the watch with it.
The owner was reunited with the wristwatch when he visited the site of his home, which was reduced to a pile of rubble, and found it in the debris.
“I think it’s kind of a miracle that they were able to find it at all,” said the watch revivalist, Marshall Sutcliffe, in his YouTube video.
The video documents the watch’s dramatic transformation — from a crusted, ash-covered, partially melted wreck to a Rolex that looks brand new.
“As you can see, nothing remained of really anything,” Sutcliffe comments. Stating that the watch likely withstood temperatures as high as 1,500 to 1,600 degrees, typical to a burning house.
Sutcliffe, who’s renown in the watch enthusiast community, and boasts over a million subscribers on YouTube, has a Patreon base where subscribes can watch his Wristwatch Revival videos.
When one of his viewers brought him the watch, Sutcliffe took on the challenge of repairing what may be his most difficult project yet.
“This just hits differently having it in my hands,” Sutcliffe said. “You know it’s weird when you see stuff on the news, but when you hold something in your hand that actually belonged to somebody and you see what happens as a result of a fire like that, it is devastating,” Sutcliffe added.
Sutcliffe went on to say he believed the owner was in the music industry and made a deal with the famed Academy Award winning German film composer, Hans Zimmer, and he gifted him the watch.
Somehow the owner was able to sift through the rubble and find the the remains of the watch. The watch had become completely seized up, and the bezel, crystal, dial and internal ring had all been destroyed.
“Oh my god. Holy smokes,” Sutcliffe said. “Wow. You can see the remnants of the gasket there. It’s completely turned into ash and dust.”
One shining jewel remained, the watch’s crystal was somehow still intact.
After Sutcliffe completely took apart the watch, cleaned and restored what remained and put the watch back together with shiny new parts, the watch was unrecognizable.
The video has drawn nearly 5,000 comments, many from viewers eager to know how the owner reacted when he got his watch back, but attempts to reach both the owner and composer Hans Zimmer were not immediately successful.
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