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Eterna, a new series of Netflix and a real Mossad operation to recover a watch.

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Conchita Turtle
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Eterna, a new series of Netflix and a real Mossad operation to recover a watch.

Post by Conchita Turtle »

Netflix has produced a spy series starring Sacha Baron Cohen:

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The series is based on the true story of legendary spy Eli Cohen. Also, for those who like audiovisuals, in 1987 the TV movie "The Impossible Spy" was made, which (at least in Spain) can see the Amazon Prime subscribers.

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And who was Eli Cohen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen

Cohen was an Egyptian Jew of Syrian parents who emigrated after the Suez Canal crisis to Israel, a country that had become independent a decade earlier and had two wars with its neighbors.

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Having an Arabic appearance and speaking it as his mother tongue, he was soon recruited by the Mossad. Cohen would infiltrate Syrian high society after a year of association with the Syrian émigré colony in Buenos Aires. In 1962, Cohen, under his false identity Kamel Amin Tsa'abet moves to Damascus as a rich businessman as a cover. Cohen/Tsa'abet soon became famous for the sumptuous parties (and orgies) he gave, with alcohol and women...

And, as part of his image, on his wrist he wore a luxurious Eternal Centenaire "61" in gold, then top of the range of the firm, a watch that we see in the photo.

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Through those parties, he made numerous contacts in power, besides seducing many women (he had 17 lovers), with which he got countless tips and secrets of military and political nature. Thanks to this he was able to visit fortifications in the Golan Heights, where he suggested planting eucalyptus trees to hide them from the Israelis... who, upon learning of this during the 6-day war, used it as a information to look for recently planted eucalyptus trees, locate them and destroy them. One of the friends he made was Hafez, who became prime minister and considered him to be a deputy defense minister. He transmitted the information to the Mossad in Morse code with a small radio transmitter, which even interfered with the radio signal used by the Syrian Army General Staff, so that in the end he would be detected, captured, judged and, despite the requests for clemency from all over the world including the Pope, publicly executed by hanging.

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At the time of his arrest he was the third in line of succession to the president in Syria, and his information was extremely important two years later for the victory in the Six-Day War. A national hero in Israel, one of the priorities of the Mossad, until today without success, has been to recover his body; as well as one of the Syrian concerns, that they would not find them, changing their place several times. In fact, the Israelis take it for granted that not even the Syrians themselves know where his remains are.

In one of these operations, they found that someone had taken Cohen's watch after his capture. Mossad carried out an operation in Damascus to recover that watch, of which it has not given details, beyond which it lasted 18 months.

When he recovered, it showed signs of time, and was already off its strap. Once recovered, forensics and experts verified with various records that it was the spy's watch, which he bought in Switzerland on one of his trips around Europe to interact and buy gifts to bribe or treat his contacts. Mossad Director Yossi Cohen said the watch was worn by Eli Cohen "until the day he was captured. "The watch was part of Eli Cohen's operational image and part of his fabricated Arab identity."

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The watch was displayed with a band in the colors of the Israeli flag at Mossad headquarters, and then presented to the family. "There was a lot of emotion, because it's essentially the only item of my father's that came back, we don't have anything else besides that," said Sofi Ben-Dor, Cohen's daughter. Ben-Dor said the grandchildren of the woman who held on to the watch after Cohen's capture wanted to sell it. "They knew all these years that it belonged to her, and only when their grandmother was old enough did the grandchildren take the opportunity to make money".

The "Centenaire 61" was a top-of-the-line watch. It had a then very modern 21-jewel 148 caliber and, a novelty at the time, it had a quick date change.

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In their advertising they said that their automatic charging system was "scientifically speaking" the most reliable and modern, thanks to its ball bearing rotor, the great innovation of Eterna.

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Eterna has made a modern reinterpretation of the watch a few years ago.

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On the other hand, it is curious that if I think of a watch manufacture linked to Israel, the first one I can think of is precisely Eterna, because its naval commands were equipped with the Super Kontiki.

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Very Rare 1970s No. M891 ETERNA Matic Super KonTiki Military IDF Diver's Watch



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Who knows. Perhaps the purchase was motivated because an ambassador of the Eterna Centenaire at that time was the mythical Jewish violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

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Re: Eterna, a new series of Netflix and a real Mossad operation to recover a watch.

Post by MoT »

Another fantastic post!

I really enjoy the history and information you give when making these. Well done!
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Re: Eterna, a new series of Netflix and a real Mossad operation to recover a watch.

Post by yinzburgher »

Very interesting bit of history. Thanks for sharing. I remember [mention]mtbmike[/mention] saying a while back here that he saw a lot of Eterna divers in Israel. It makes more sense now knowing there was a link with their navy. I don't watch a whole lot of shows/series but I do find the Mossad very interesting so maybe I'll check it out.
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Re: Eterna, a new series of Netflix and a real Mossad operation to recover a watch.

Post by Robotaz »

I’m going to watch it now. Thanks for the heads up!
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