Not that long ago, an Australian surfer named Matt Cuddihy retrieved a rare Rolex Submariner from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Despite its terrible condition, the watch was still working and it was still worth a huge chunk of money.
Luckily for the owner, Matt didn’t believe in the ‘finders, keepers’ mantra and, amazingly, managed to find the rightful owner and return the timepiece.
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As ever, we’ve got social media to thank for that.
Matt took to Instagram to share the news of his sea-debris-encrusted sunken Rolex find and the pictures went viral.
“The only thing I wanted was to reunite it with the owner,” he said.
“I wasn’t ever going to sell it. I knew it meant a lot to someone. There is so much history there.”
With the help of web magazine Fratello Watches, Matt was able to track down Ric, the owner of the Rolex.
When Ric got in touch with Matt, Matt knew he finally got the right guy because Ric was aware of an inscription on the case back that had not been mentioned in the social media post.
“Hey Matt, if that watch has an inscription on the back it is mine. I contacted the police after I lost the watch,” Ric said in a message to Matt.
“I might be able to get it back because it has very special memories for me.”
As it turns out, Ric had been given the watch by his father in 1971, when he was 18 years old, which is why the inscription simply read: “Presented 1971”.
Kudos to Matt for finding the watch and selflessly finding its owner.
After all, even in this condition, the watch is worth quite a bit of money.
