EXTREMELY RARE! NOS 1997 "I was there" Swatch commemorating Britain handing Hong Kong back to China

[tweedydon]

EXTREMELY RARE!

NOS 1997 "I was there" Swatch commemorating Britain handing Hong Kong back to mainland China.



SOLD ONLY IN HONG KONG IN JUNE 1997 and sold out almost immediately!

More information about the history of Swatch and its links with Ivy Style and Trad can be found on my Facebook page, WaterhollowTweed!​

Swatch occasionally sold watches designed to commemorate historic and cultural events, ensuring their collectibility by restricting their sale to certain places at certain times.

This is one of those watches: The "I was There" watch designed to commemorate the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China in June 1997, and sold ONLY in Hong Kong during that month is very limited quantities. Naturally, it sold out almost immediately.... and so I'm vary pleased to be able to offer one here!

This watch is MINT, and comes complete with its original exterior box, its original plastic case, and its original instructions. The plastic case appears never to have been opened, and so I did not open it to take pictures of the watch's face and its strap.

Examples of this watch (some with the original box and case, some without) sell for around $85 - 95, plus shipping. So, how about JUST $49, or offer, boxed, shipped, and insured within the USA?

NB: Since the plastic case has never been opened I have no means of knowing if this watch currently works--although I have no reason to suspect that it doesn't! Given its *highly* collectible nature, though, and given that this is the only unopened 1997 HK "I Was There" watch I have seen my suspicion is that the value of this lies in its nature as a historical keepsake rather than as a timepiece!