Submerged Speedmaster

Chingachgook

Where would I find the serial number? I don't see one on the outside of the case. I am a little further west than the UK and fear were I to contact the local police where it was found it would wind up on the chief or some member of his family's wrist. I guess I could post an ad in the local paper & ask the person that lost it to form a line on the beach. If I can find the serial number maybe Omega could contact the owner if they registered the watch, which I'm sure is automatic with purchase or the owner was that responsible. They have probably filed an insurance claim at this point anyway, might cause more problems for them if it is returned, but if I can find a serial number I can try.

Canuck

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chingachgook

Interesting choice for a name to go with your avatar. Care to ell us how you settled on the name of a fictional character from the stories of James Fenimore Cooper? You a fan?

dwboston

And I feel the same way about anonymous first-time posters on an internet forum.

redpcar

You mentioned a grandson?

tyrantlizardrex

It’s on the underside of the lug closes to where the word “missions” is on the caseback.

You obviously know the lay of the land where you are better than anyone here... do you think this might have belonged to someone local, or more likely come off the wrist of a tourist who’s long gone?

Are there local laws that might apply?

My concerns are two fold: 1) getting it back to the owner if possible, 2) stopping you from getting in trouble with law enforcement.

Omega might be able to track down the owner (if the watch is registered to them - there’s no gaurantee of this).

I don’t think you owe the owner anything more than doing what’s legally right where you are - certainly not advocating that having found something they lost, that you should spend hundreds of dollars on getting it fixed, to give back to them.

TL : DR - do what the law says where you are in regard to getting it back to the owner, and don’t get yourself in trouble by not doing what you should.

Chingachgook

Found at a beach house rental area that literally has thousands of vacationers at any one time in season and has a small full time population. I would trust Omega to get it back to the rightful owner before I would the local police, tourists come from all over to vacation there. I'll look for the serial # and try again with Omega. Any Idea when these were made since I don't see them in the current offerings?

Longbow

I seem to recall a post on OF about the battery life of the X33 being rather short. Since it is still working, that sort of narrows down the time period when the owner (or last wearer) lost it at sea. Perhaps it had a battery swap at an Omega AD or boutique in the last 18 months or so.

michael22

How would Omega know who the real owner is?

michael22

If it were found underwater, some places would consider it a rightful salvage.

Mouse_at_Large

I'll take the charitable view. You don't have to jump through hoops. Simply hand it into the police explaining the circumstances and wait. At the end of the process, if it has been returned to the owner, so be it. If you eventually get the watch handed to you, you're ahead of the game.

I really don't see this as overly complicated.

Skier

As it was found 'in the surf' then the law in the UK is that it must be reported to the Receiver of Wreck, a position within the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCGA).

FreelanceWriter

Put an ad in the local paper saying not to bother contacting you unless the responder can furnish the serial number. To claim ownership, one has to be able to identify the watch and that's the only way to definitively identify a watch reliably (other than proof of a contemporaneous forum post or public notice or something like that about losing an Omega X-33 in that area). If you took it to the Police, that's the proof they'd require, and I agree with you that it's not safe to assume whoever's in charge won't just keep it, himself. After nobody identifies it in the statutory period in your area, send it to Omega for a service estimate and compare that cost with the going rate for that watch on eBay. Then, either sell it or do whatever you planned to do with it, originally. Whatever you do, don't publish the serial # if you find it. If Omega keeps it because the serial # is in their database, then, you've done your good deed, assuming Omega can be trusted to contact the owner. If Omega service fees are too expensive in relation to the resale value, just find a local watchmaker to repair it for roughly half the cost or sell it as-is on eBay with full disclosure about the condition but not the circumstances of your acquiring it to avoid false claims of ownership. Welcome to the forum.

ac106

whats a local paper?

But seriously... It sounds like the OP lives in a tourist area with dodgy local police. Therefore I think we can discount the "getting in trouble with law enforcement" for keeping it angle AND turning it over to the police in an attempt to reunite it with the real owner.

So that leaves us with the moral quandary of what to do with it. I would get the serial number and google to see if anyone posted it online. Then I would do this periodically, once a year or so, for a while just in case it gets posted. Maybe years later, the owner stumbles into a watch nerd forum and is told to post the serial number in an attempt to track it down. Who knows?

Beyond that, I am not sure what else can possibly be done. He already contacted Omega. Perhaps they have some info, but likely not.

In the mean time, I would fix it and wear it. Seems a shame to toss it in a drawer. Maybe kismet brought the watch to you for some unknown reason.