Rolex worn by prisoner during WWII 'Great Escape' up for auction

A Rolex watch worn by a British prisoner during the real-life "Great Escape" from the Nazi Stalag Luft III concentration camp is going on sale in New York.

Christie's expects the timepiece to fetch between $200,000 and $400,000 at auction on June 9.

The watch was worn by RAF Flight Lieutenant Gerald Imeson on the night of March 24, 1944 when a group of Allied soldiers undertook the daring escape.

The steel watch with a black luminous dial and hands was "instrumental in the planning and execution" of their bid for freedom, Christie's said.

The auction house said it believed Imeson's watch helped calculate the time it would take the prisoners to crawl through tunnels used in the breakout as well as timing the patrols of the camp guards.

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172nd in line

The getaway plan, which influenced the 1963 film “The Great Escape” starring Steve McQueen, would be through a 102 metre (334 foot) long tunnel dubbed “Harry”.

"When the escape got underway on March 24, 1944, it was discovered that tunnel “Harry” surfaced just short of the forest and shy of the tree line, close to a guard tower," Christie's wrote.

This resulted in a change in plans. Now, instead of one man leaving every minute, it would have to be 10 men leaving per hour.

Imeson wore the Oyster Chronograph watch as he waited 172nd in line to escape, according to Christie's.

Of the 200 prisoners who participated in the plan, 76 briefly escaped. Imeson was not among them and remained at the camp.

All but three of the men who escaped were captured, and 50 were executed.

Imeson survived the war and was liberated from another POW camp at the end of the war in 1945.

He wore the watch until his death in 2003 at the age of 85. It was first auctioned in Britain in 2013.

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