Only Fools and Horses: The eye-watering sum the famous watch from Time On Our Hands is worth in 2023
Del Boy would have been able to invest loads more in the American Stock Market if the watch had been sold today!
Throughout Only Fools and Horses, Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter (Sir David Jason) is convinced that one day he will be wealthy and would repeatedly state: “This time next year, we’ll be millionaires”. This affirmation finally came true as the wheeler-dealer, and younger brother Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) found their fortune in 1996.
The Time On Our Hands episode was a fairy tale ending for the Trotter brothers as they became millionaires and no longer had to flog hooky gear down the local market to make a few quid. The installment is also the most-watched Only Fools episode of all time with 24.35 million viewers tuning in when it debuted on the BBC on December 29, 1996.
This was also the last time legends Del Boy (David Jason), Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), and Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) would ever share the screen.
Time On Our Hands episode recap
The episode opens with a nervous Raquel Turner (Tessa Peake-Jones) planning a family dinner at the Trotters’ famous Peckham flat with her parents, Del Boy, Damien (Ben Smith), Rodney, and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong) – but the evening doesn’t go quite to plan when all her hard work is ruined by a huge blunder caused by clumsy Uncle Albert.
The next day the Trotters’ lives are well and truly turned upside down when Raquel’s dad makes a discovery that lands them a mighty windfall. When James Turner (Michael Jayston) picks up his car from the Trotters’ garage the antique dealer spots an old pocket watch sitting on a gas cooker.
After closer examination, he suggests the watch is the work of John Harrison – the same person who designed and built the world’s most successful maritime clock back in the 18th century.
Experts confirm the watch to be a Harrison “lesser watch”, a semi-mythical piece whose designs exist but it was unclear whether the watch was ever made, and the timepiece goes to Sotheby’s for auction.
Del Boy promptly (and rather hilariously) faints after hearing the opening bid of £150,000, but after recovering the wheeler-dealer and Rodney rush back into the auction room as the bidding continues.
The final bid was confirmed at £6.2 million and when Rodney re-reads Sotheby’s statement in the yellow reliant van, the Trotter Brothers begin whooping hysterically, rocking the van with joy as they are now millionaires.
Later in the episode, the brothers reminisce on their life in Peckham and how their ducking and diving lifestyle will change now they’re wealthy.
How much would the antique watch be worth in 2023?
Time On Our Hands was set in 1996 and the watch was worth £6.2 million. Using the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, which uses Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data from the Office for National Statistics from 1988 onward, we checked how much £6.2 million is in today’s money.
So £6.2 million in 1996 is the equivalent to exactly £11,891,880.82 in today’s money. The Trotters would have had nearly £6 million each if the watch had been sold today making it worth double the price, lovely jubbly!
