Khanjar And Qaboos Rolexes: Are They The Vintage Watch Industry's Blood Diamonds?

This is a recent example of serious watch collectors expressing increasing interest in vintage watches bearing either the Sultanate of Oman's khanjar and crossed swords emblem or the signature, usually in red, of the current Sultan Qaboos bin Said Albu Saidi on the dial Increasing demand for watches with the Omani emblem is understandable given the high quality, good condition, demonstrable provenance, and rarity of most of these watches, combined with the fact that they had often been presented to their first owners in the 1970s by Sultan Qaboos in person as a token of gratitude for services rendered to the then nascent sultanate Of particular interest to European and especially British collectors were the watches presented by Sultan Qaboos to members of Britain's SAS who were involved in the 1970 coup where British forces arranged for Qaboos to depose his father, Sultan Taimur, who had ruled Muscat and Oman as a medieval backwater since 1932.

Interestingly, four "Gold" Khanjar Sea-Dwellers have also come to light, which on a purely statistical basis suggests that some 9-12 gold Khanjar watches were presented, and that this number might correspond to the nine SAS members who took part in the battle of Mirbat on 19 July 1972, where nine SAS members saw off an attack by 250 Dhofar rebels My father took me to buy my first watch in Dubai when I was eight years old; it was a manual-wind, steel-encased boys' watch on a steel bracelet with a red second hand and luminous Mercedes hour and minute hands that lit up like Blackpool tower at night Morris' watch was not a top-tier brand known to the tribesman, leaving him uncertain as to whether his knowledge of Swiss watch brands was inadequate and Morris was possibly a person of great importance, or Morris was merely a nobody with an unremarkable watch.

The fact the new sultan continued to order Rolexes and other watches via Asprey in London, rather than directly from the manufacturer, merely confirms the grip that Britain continued to exert over the country. . Source