The Rolex Killer: How a Watch Helped Solve a Murder
On 28 July 1996, a fishing trawler off Brixham in the English Channel brought up the body of a middle-aged man. The victim had a head wound, no identification, and empty pockets. What remained on his wrist was a Rolex Datejust. When lifted from the net, the movement of the watch restarted; it displayed 11:35 with the date showing the 22nd. Those details provided investigators with a first clue, but the real breakthrough came from the watch’s service history.
From a Watch to a Name
The post-mortem revealed drowning as the cause of death, raising the possibility that the man had simply fallen into the water after being struck on the head. With no wallet or documents, the case stalled until detectives contacted Rolex. Using the serial number, Rolex traced the watch back to Fattorini, a jeweller in Harrogate that had serviced it in the 1980s. Records there linked the timepiece to Ronald J. Platt.
Platt, a television repairman and military veteran, had been reported as having moved to France. This information came from a man named David Davis, who described himself as a close friend. He claimed Platt had left to start a business abroad. Yet investigators found this account increasingly inconsistent. Dental records and a tattoo confirmed the body belonged to Platt, not someone else with the same name. The last person reliably connected to him was Davis.
Albert Walker’s Double Life
Police visiting Davis’s address learned from neighbours that he had been introducing himself as Ronald Platt and living with a younger woman they assumed was his wife. In reality, “David Davis” was Albert Johnson Walker, a Canadian accountant who had fled to the UK in 1990 after defrauding more than 70 clients of $3.2 million. He had brought his teenage daughter with him, and she was presented locally as his partner.
Walker had befriended Platt years earlier, knowing he was a man with few close ties. The friendship allowed him to build a plan around assuming Platt’s identity. Investigators concluded that on a fishing trip aboard Walker’s boat, the Lady Jane, Platt was struck on the back of the head and pushed overboard with a ten-pound anchor tied to his belt. Without the Rolex, his body may never have been identified; the serial number and service records exposed both his identity and Walker’s lies.
Trial and Aftermath
In 1998, Walker was convicted of Platt’s murder and sentenced to life in prison in the UK. Canadian authorities declined immediate extradition, citing the seriousness of the case and their confidence in the British conviction. The murder became widely known as the “Rolex Killer” case because the watch provided the decisive lead that solved it.
Platt’s watch, a 1971 Rolex Datejust reference 1600, had been his constant companion for a quarter of a century. Friends noted he wore it everywhere, even in the shower, and positioned it in photographs. In 2002, police released the watch to Platt’s family. Its current whereabouts are not public, but it remains a lasting reminder of how routine service records and one object on a wrist exposed one of Canada’s most notorious fugitives and brought a complex case to an end.
