As a Florida auctioneer examined a pocket watch from the late 1800s, he realized he wasn’t clutching an ordinary timepiece.
“His research led him to believe that he may be holding a piece of U.S. presidential history,” the FBI said in a June 27 news release.
After contacting the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, the sites confirmed it in fact was Roosevelt’s long-lost pocket watch, the agency said.
“The stories this watch could tell over the last 126 years include colorful and profound moments in American history,” Superintendent Jonathan Parker of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site said in a National Park Service news release.
‘Stolen artifact’
At the start of the Spanish American War, Roosevelt sat in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Edith, eagerly waiting to join the efforts.
In the midst of his waiting, “he received a gift from his sister Corinne and brother-in-law Douglas Robinson: a silver pocket watch,” according to the National Park Service.
The future president wrote to his sister on May 5, 1898:
“Darling Corinne, You could not have given me a more useful present than the watch; it was exactly what I wished … Thank old Douglas for the watch — and for his many, many kindnesses.”
A week later, he headed to San Antonio to lead the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, according to NPS.
This would be the first of many grand adventures Roosevelt’s watch would see. It accompanied him “on some of his most famous adventures, including charging up San Juan Hill in Cuba, hunting wild game in Africa, and exploring the Amazon in South America,” NPS said.
After his death in 1919, the watch made its way to a New York exhibit, the FBI said. Sagamore Hill National Historic Site loaned the timepiece to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, N.Y., for an exhibition on a six-year term, which was then extended.
However, in 1987, the watch was stolen, and it would be missing for nearly four decades. That is, until it appeared at a Florida auction house in 2023.
The National Park Service took up the investigation to “recover the stolen artifact,” as both the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site fall under its jurisdiction.
The FBI said NPS also enlisted the help of its art crime team, and both agencies confirmed “this was the watch stolen almost 40 years earlier.”
Special Agent Robert Giczy said the watch’s recovery “would not have been possible without the close collaboration between the FBI and NPS,” according to the release.
“This partnership ensured that this historic treasure could be returned safely for future generations to enjoy,” Giczy said.
After the asset forfeiture process, the FBI said the timepiece was returned to its rightful owner: the Sagamore Hills National Historic Site.
The watch is now on display at a free “exhibit at the Old Orchard Museum, part of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site,” according to a National Park Service Facebook post.
“Almost 40 years have passed since the public had last seen President Roosevelt’s watch and we’re excited to place this watch back into the light on public display,” Parker said in the release.
