I just bought this... help

MCC

😗😗😗😗😗😗🍿It is a real shame that the discussion about the watch itself has been overshadowed by our speculation about who has rightful ownership to it. I would certainly be interested to know about the family that sold the watch to the OP and how they came by the watch.

Having said that I cannot help but add my twopence in here. While it is generally true that you cannot give better title to something than you have yourself, I think the OP could rely on the doctrine of a bona fide purchaser for value without notice. In other words if the OP bought in good faith, paid a reasonable and defendable sum and made reasonable enquiries then the original owners ( ie the Govt) may we prevented from recovering the watch. It is not precisely clear how the transaction was concluded and documented but there might well be another way of this staying in private hands.😗🍿

MCC

I think the OP could rely on the doctrine of a bona fide purchaser for value without notice. In other words if the OP bought in good faith, paid a reasonable and defendable sum and made reasonable enquiries then the original owners ( ie the Govt) may we prevented from recovering the watch.

tyrantlizardrex

I think those two things are very likely intrinsically linked - someone who worked at NASA either had sticky fingers, or was given the watch and not aware that it was given to them by someone who had (if the previous rules around the Bonhams example applies to all of these serial numbered watches) no right to give it away.

NASA appears to have zero sense of humour when it comes to these watches wandering off/being sold... and I think if the OP wants to work out if he is able to keep it or should be going back to get the cash he paid for it, then the route @JwRosenthal has suggested is the only sensible option.

Otherwise he could find himself without the cash and without the watch.

JwRosenthal

The sticky fingers happens all the time, especially when people think that it is going to be thrown out anyway- this scrap copper pipe- they were just going to throw it out, why waste it!
The DOD has set some unusual precedents in the past with allowing retirees to keep their sidearm, issued dress regalia, saddles, etc. Since DOD works within a world of their own- I don’t even speculate on how they get around the property rules. I assume nasa may function similarly (since many are probably ex-DOD anyway) and played it fast and loose with giving shit away. If the culture was established, why would anyone think it has changed despite being illegal.

pdxleaf

DoD property management is one of the main reasons why the US government cannot get a clean, unqualified opinion on their financial statements. Somewhat understandable due to the magnitude, as well as how tge property is used (e.g. we had huge piles of gear such as body armor that was burned after Desert Storm rather than bring it back home possibly contaminated.)

Still, DoD records are not the greatest.

I think your idea about a general FOIA request for all the Alaska III's would be a fantastic project. It'd be interesting to pretty much everyone but you, apparently. 😁

Plus, the OPs watch would just be one in the bunch.

Hmm, project time?

JwRosenthal

Huntsville, Alabama

rcs914

Or how about the sample collection bag that still had moon dust in the bottom of the bag that NASA sued to get back?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...s-18-million-controversial-auction-180964153/

mydeafcat

Thread drift warning....this will be it, I promise. Anyone really curious about 'whatever happened to those Nazi scientists' (who, by the way, contributed significantly to Earthlings getting to the moon) would benefit from reading up on the US-developed - and, dare I add, opportunistic as all hell - Operation Paperclip. It's fascinated me for many years. It may also answer @sheepdoll's question about what kind of fellow Wernher von Braun really was. Let's just say leopard's rarely change their spots. And for the record, the brother of a close family friend was a rocket scientist who worked with all these fellows in Huntsville. He was a brilliant Canadian rocket scientist of a certain religious (albeit secular) background; let's just say he had a few awkward moments.