Unlikely it's worth more than the gold value. But, of course, you should be advertising locally to return it to the owner. My Mother lost a treasured gold watch on the street some years ago & is still upset about it. This watch hasn't been produced for some time, so likely also belongs to a older person who has had it & treasured it for a significant part of their life.
+1 or hand it in to the local police station. How would you feel if you lost something you treasured and some "person" tried to profit from your loss.
In the UK, the correct procedure for lost property such as this is to hand it in to the nearest Police Station.
It can be worth a lot of bad karma if you try to sell it instead of make an effort to return it to it's rightful owner.
I don't want sell it and i'll never give this to the corrupt police of my country! Surely, the owner don't need this watch to eat... bad luck
How about this - the gold watch my mother lost was bought for her as a birthday gift after her parents and my father saved up for it for many months. She wore it every day for 25 years and took good care of it until it fell off her wrist when she was rushing to work - by which stage she was a single parent supporting my sister. It was the only decent watch she ever owned. Did she need it to eat ? No. But even if she did she wouldn't have sold it. So the point is: justify it to yourself however you want, but you are taking something away from someone. You have no idea if it is some normal person who has lost something valuable, or some invented rich guy who was walking about in your neighbourhood. And I'm guessing you didn't find it in a rich part of town... If you're keeping it, I hope that thing burns your eyes every time you look at it. It's nothing more than you'd deserve.
He's been removed, irrespective of which country he's from, in the one Omegaforums.net is based out of, theft by finding is still theft.
Supporting your move. The police in my country is known to be corrupt, but that's not a reason to stick with basic ethics. If you find things not belong to you, you should return it to the owner, police station or local civic authority.
Gentlemen, I commend you all for your comments. Personally I favor Mr. Spiki's email. I went to military school and our honor system was uniform to West Point's. That guy makes me sick. I personally have learned many life lessons in business and ethics from you guys. Glad he is gone. And I believe what comes around goes around in some aspect of life. Sorry sleep deprived because of the baby. I noticed I always look at the threads on here more than Facebook. Thanks again for everyone's input.
Awe isn't the word that described my thoughts. The guy is not only happy to keep his find like a 3yr old would, he wanted us to give him a estimate of its value May the fleas of a thousand camels forever infest his underwear!