I gave my wife a Bulova and that thing wouldn’t last 5 minutes under water. Teddy Bacon’s gold Bulova lasted 55 years.

The last time Teddy Bacon saw his expensive gold watch it was sinking down into the harbour in Gibraltar.

That was in 1941, and the watch had slipped off his wrist when Lieutenant Bacon threw a line to shore from his ship, HMS Repulse.

After two divers failed to find his lost treasure, the young officer gave up on ever seeing it again.

The Bulova Automatic, wrapped in a brown paper bag, did not seem at all the worse for wear after decades on the ocean floor.

The timepiece had been discovered by workers dredging the harbour in 2007, who scooped it up with other debris in their machine.
teddy bacon’s lost watch

Still is working order: The Bulova watch

Because the deputy harbourmaster in 1941 had made a log with a description of the watch and its approximate location, staff knew who it belonged to.

ByJohn Biggs

John lives in Brooklyn and has loved watches since he got his first Swatch Irony automatic in 1998. He is the editor of WristWatchReview.

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