Only Fools and Horses: The eye-watering sum the famous watch from Time On Our Hands is worth in 2022 as inflation soars
That's a very cushty amount!
Throughout Only Fools and Horses, Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter manifested the idea of becoming a wealthy businessman as he would repeatedly say: “This time next year, we’ll be millionaires”. This statement came true as the wheeler-dealer, and younger brother Rodney found their fortune in 1996.
The Time On Our Hands episodes was a fairy tale ending for the pair as they became millionaires and no longer had to flog hooky gear down the local market to make a few quid. This is the most-watched Only Fools episode of all time with 24.35 million viewers tuning in when it debuted on the BBC.
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 sees 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 2022?
Time On Our Hands was set in 1996 and the watch was worth £6.2 million. According to the Bank of England, inflation averaged 4.8 percent each year between 1996 and 2021.
So £6.2 million in 1996 is the equivalent to exactly £12,381,279.25 in today’s money. The Trotters would have had more than £6million each if the watch had been sold today making it worth double the price, lovely jubbly!
* You can re-watch Time On Our Hands now on Britbox.
