The eleven members of the Gough Island Scientific Survey spent over six months recording details of the island?s geological history and its flora and fauna. Since the island is a dot in the farthest reaches of the South Atlantic this expedition would be a footnote in the story of the International Geophysical Year if it were not for one small detail. One of the watches used by the expedition has recently surfaced - it is the present watch. Like many of the watches made by Rolex in the 1950s, it poses more questions than it answers. These watches were given by the society to the members of expeditions and it seems that they were not expected to be returned on the completion of the expedition, as the case backs are engraved with the title of the expedition (which makes it impossible for them to be re-used). This watch was given to Nigel Wace, a 26 year old botanist at Oxford; who in later life became the leading authority on the plant life of Gough Island and the other three Tristan da Cunha islands when he became head of the department of Biogeography at the National University of Australia. What makes this watch unusual is that it is a reference 6098, not the normal 6150 reference seen on early Explorers. It also has the last 3 numbers of the serial number engraved inside the case back; this is usually seen on watches such as the British Military Submariners and the Comex watches. The common feature amongst all these watches is that they have engraved backs; the purpose of the serial number inside the case back is to ensure that case backs were not mixed up when they were sent out for engraving. This almost certainly means that the case back engraving of the expedition?s name was done by Rolex, not by the society.