Anyone looking to secure a piece of history, this one’s for you. A Rolex watch, belonging to former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, will be put on auction, looking to find a new home after decades spent being passed down by the late head-of-State’s family. A gift from his successor Anwar Saadat, the wristwatch is believed to be a 1963 Day-Date model with an inscription on the case that reads “Mr. Anwar El Sadat 26-9-1963” in Arabic as a testament to both statesmen friendship and loyalty towards each other.
Scheduled to be auctioned off on Dec. 6 at Sotheby’s Important Watches Auction in New York, it has been reported that the watch was offered by Nasser’s grandson to the world’s largest brokers of fine arts, jewelry, and collectibles. He explained having received the watch a few years prior to his father’s passing. “Shortly after my grandfather’s death, my grandmother gave the watch to my father, as she wanted him to have it as the eldest son,” Khalid Gamal Abdel Nasser explained in a letter that accompanies the watch. “A few years before my father passed in September 2011, he showed me the watch for the first time and passed it on to me, just as his mother had done with him,” it also read.
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“Growing up, we learned of how modest president Nasser was, rejecting to live an extravagant life of wealth and materialism, dedicating his life to the liberation movement of the latter half of the 20th century, to uniting the Arab World, to advancing the newly founded Arab Republic of Egypt, and to finally achieve peace in the region with his acceptance of the Rogers Peace Plan prior to his death,” it added.
Valued between $30,000 and $60,000, this auction marks the first time the historic timepiece will be available on the open market. Following Nasser’s untimely death at the age of 52 due to a heart attack while in office, most of his personal belongings were donated to the Gamal Abdel Nasser Museum in Cairo. However, the watch remained one of the few belongings that stayed within the family, safely kept as a private memory— until now.
