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Elvis Presley owned personalized Mathey Tissot watch
$ 4752
- Description
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Description
Before the TCB necklace, Elvis gifted these personalized Mathey Tissot watches to his entourage. On the bezel of the watch, it reads "Elvis Presley". It is not clear how many were made, but probably less than 50, with slight variations in the color scheme. These were ordered by Elvis from his jeweler Harry Levitch in Memphis in 1969-1971. Elvis also gave these away during the Jaycee award ceremony in 1971, including one to George Bush.This particular example was a gift from Elvis Presley to his friend and private investigator John O'Grady (pls google). O'Grady already passed away over 20 years ago, and his wife passed away more recently, a few years ago. This watch comes from her estate sale and was acquired by an antique store in Long Beach. I was able to contact John O'Grady's son who confirmed the details of the estate sale. I asked him to write a COA for me, but although he is very friendly, he didn't want to do that as he had actually forgotten about the watch and the antique store found it in the house and bought it during the estate sale without him knowing it was being offered at the estate sale. He also told me that Elvis gave his father many gifts and his father gave most of these away.
When I bought it, it had a leather band (not original) and I replaced it with a gold plated high quality band. So the band is not original. The watch is in working order and keeps the time very well, although it has some minor wear, see pics. It is good to know that this is one of the Elvis Owned items for sale on Ebay where you can be confident it really came from Elvis, as the bezel of the watch was personalized specially for Elvis in this particular style. I have never come across or heard of any fakes or imitations for these watches (see Google). Also this type of Mathey Tissot watch was only made in the late sixties/early seventies.
This watch is unique as it is a wind up and all other examples are automatic. It also features only the date and not the day, as with the other watches that Elvis gave away (pls google). Maybe John O'Grady preferred a wind up or Harry Levitch was out of stock for the automatic ones, but that's just a guess. These watches are rare and occasionally show up at auctions where they sell for prices up to 20.000 USD. There is a similar watch for sale on Ebay now for 25.000 USD. This one is unique and possibly a one of a kind. I did check with Graceland regarding the status of this particular watch but they could offer no details other than that they have a receipt on file of these watches but no info on the different styles or this particular model. As you can see I did my research. This is an impressive piece with history and a great investment. I am selling because I want to buy other items for my Elvis collection.