Trying to find my dad’s stolen 1985 AP watch
Could we make a miracle happen? Retrieving my father’s lost watch…
When my dad was 20 (1985) he was really good at playing golf. He entered a golf competition in Crans Montana, Switzerland and won the first prize: an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. At the time, it was a great watch, but nothing near the prestige and status that today’s market gives it.
He did everything wearing that watch throughout his career: wrote his thesis, wore it to his marriage and carried his newborn son’s wearing that watch.
This is when tragedy kicks in: one day it broke (I think there was a problem with the movement or an index fell off) and decided to get it serviced at AP. My grandma was visiting us in Paris (we lived there) and he decided to give it to her as she was returning to Switzerland where she would get it serviced.
She put it in her handbag, arrived at the Gare de Lyon station and when she got to Switzerland, the watch had disappeared. It has been stolen at the station while she was distracted. This was about 10 years ago.
Needless to say my father was distraught and extremely upset. He even cried which I had never seen him do before. His watch he spent the over 30 years creating memories with had been stolen forever.
We accepted its fate, as I asked him if he had kept the box or papers and he said no.
That’s until we found both the box and guarantee from the AP boutique.
I have everything, the reference number, movement, case number.
My dream is to find this watch somehow… but I don’t know where to start.
Please contact me if you have any information, any suggestions, any way I can get my message and story across more effectively via my email thomasducrey@gmail.com
Thank you for your time
Welcome to my WatchCrunch profile.
Best of luck! I hope that it works out for you.
First thing that I'd recommend is that you contact AP and advise them that the watch was stolen. They should have records as to whether it has been submitted for service/repair since it was lost, and if so, where it was sent from.
One caveat -- was the watch insured at the time when it was stolen, and if so, did your dad make a claim? If he did, then the watch isn't his, even if you find it -- it belongs to the insurance company.