Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

A wristwatch that belonged to martial arts legend Bruce Lee has been sold at auction for 23,000 GBP.

The watch was bought at Phillips auction house in the south-eastern Chinese autonomous territory of Hong Kong for 29,000 USD (23,000 GBP), according to reports.

The timepiece formerly owned by the martial arts icon, who died mysteriously in Hong Kong in 1973, was one of 82 lots on sale during Phillips’ Hong Kong Watch Auction.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire & AsiaWire/Phillips

The watch was reportedly a Universal Geneve Polerouter with a gold-plated stainless steel face and a cuff-style leather strap.

It came with a letter of authenticity from former owner Mark Ashton-Jackson, who was given the watch by his dad Herb Jackson.

According to reports, Jackson was one of Lee’s first students and a close pal.

Bruce Lee gave him the watch as a present back in 1968.

The timepiece was expected to fetch between 80,000 and 150,000 HKD (8,060 and 15,112 GBP), but the final bid smashed those estimates.

According to Phillips action house, Bruce Lee owned a number of watches and gave many of them to friends and colleagues as gifts.

They also said that the watch featured in the ‘Jeet Kune Do’ magazine in 2001 in an article about Jackson’s friendship with Bruce Lee titled ‘Herb Jackson’s Fight for Freedom’.