Charterhouse auctioneers, based in the South West, given old Rolex worth £30,000

Especially as an old watch - found in a garage - could sell for £30,000.

The Rolex is set to go under the Charterhouse gavel in Sherbourne on February 4.

“It was quite a moment for me when, due to social distancing, I met the owner outside our Sherborne salerooms on a cold and wet January day and he pulled the watch out of a plastic bag,” said auctioneer Ricard Bromell.

“He thought it could be a fake worth very little.

"When I told him it was worth £20,000 to £30,000 he was taken aback wanted to sit down and catch his breath.”

The Rolex, found by the owner five years ago when he cleared out his late grandfathers garage, is a very rare triple calendar wristwatch in an 18ct yellow gold case.

The watch has been used, loved and enjoyed over the decades with some loss of paint to the dial, not all dials functioning and the buttons not operating.

It is not known how the man's late grandfather, who served in the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War and afterwards as a diver, came to own this Rolex, or quite how or why it ended up in his garage.

Astounded at the £20,000-30,000 auction valuation, the man decided, having checked with his mother, to enter the Rolex into Charterhouse's February 4 specialist watch, silver and jewellery auction.