Found a pocketwatch on omaha

[errorbugg]

Last week i visited omahabeach. Took a walk on the beach the 15th of july 2010 and found a rusty pocketwatch in the sand. A bit of the chain is stuck-rusted on the backside.

Pocketwatches was not common after the war, it must have belonged to an american soldier. I have not investigate it too much. What if it stopped at 07 am ?

Is this a rare relic ? How much can it be worth?
Two other relics also found, a bolt and some kind of mechanism.

[jimpy]

Hi errorbug,
Welcome to the forums mate.

I for one would be very interested to see what this cleans up like.
It would be brilliant if it cleaned up and there was a name engraved on it.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[davejb]

AINT IT MARVELOUS, i walked along the same beach a month ago and all i found was seaweed, sorry i tell a lie, i managed to find my own dental plate that i lost that day when i sneezed and coughed at the same time and it flew out of my mouth, took me an hour of gently moving sand away, and the bloody tide was coming in

[sebfrench76]

Ha ha ah!!!!Sorry for your dental plate,Davejb,but you cracked me up!!!!Excellent!!
This watch could be cleaned with oxalic acid,IMO,but why asking for its value,especially if it appears to have been the one of a GI?
It's a piece of history rather much than an item to trade ,don't you think?

[jimpy]

This watch could be cleaned with oxalic acid,IMO,but why asking for its value,especially if it appears to have been the one of a GI?
It's a piece of history rather much than an item to trade ,don't you think?

I couldnt agree more Seb.

Personally, Im not in this hobby for personal gain, Im in it for the historical side.
Correct me if Im wrong, but there seems to me to be more and more questions as to "what can I get for this if I was to sell it?" I can understand if its a question about value for insurance purposes, but when it is, to me anyway, someone just wanting to sell on, then that gets my back up big time.
Maybe Im being a bit naive on this, I dont know, and I know that we all sell on bits and pieces from our collections at some point, (I sold on the majority of my 37ptn webbing and all my US webbing in the 1980's!) But just picking things up and then obviously looking for a "quick buck" just gets me riled up.

Anyway, rant over for now.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[errorbugg]

I couldnt agree more Seb.

Personally, Im not in this hobby for personal gain, Im in it for the historical side.
Correct me if Im wrong, but there seems to me to be more and more questions as to "what can I get for this if I was to sell it?" I can understand if its a question about value for insurance purposes, but when it is, to me anyway, someone just wanting to sell on, then that gets my back up big time.
Maybe Im being a bit naive on this, I dont know, and I know that we all sell on bits and pieces from our collections at some point, (I sold on the majority of my 37ptn webbing and all my US webbing in the 1980's!) But just picking things up and then obviously looking for a "quick buck" just gets me riled up.

Anyway, rant over for now.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

Im not selling the item. Im just want to know if it is a rare item.

Im interested in history and have been to the finnish battlefields Salla, suomisalmi, Raate. Found stuff like grenadeshells, ammo. I have not traded anything.

When i was a teenager my mother took me to her homevillage misi near the town kemijärvi in the north of finland. She had a cabin in the village called Misi. The germans blew their supplies when the had to leave in autumn 44.

The crate is VERY wide. I remember we found ammo and other stuff EVERYWHERE. A neighbour had handgrenades as decoration on the fence around the yard.

Two years ago (almost 30 years later) me and a friend visited the crate but almost everthing was rusted away. The army had begun to clear the area from unexploded ammo.

The fence with the handgrenades was not there anymore either.

The germans dumped ammo and weapons in a nearby lake and in the old mine (waterfilled) in misi. The mine was closed and private property.

Sad..

[sebfrench76]

Really sorry, you're an honest guy, but your reply does not convince me.i'm a frog,aged43,and during summer,i everyday think to these poor guys that died at 20,just to allow me the right to breath free.All I have lived since I was 20,they will never have this luck.I'm quite sorry to use this acid tune, but this is a really moving topic for me.What is digged from the shore there needs to be shared with the more people possible,on sites like this one,and hasn't to become a trading item.We have a duty considering these Brave young boys,and I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that way.On many French sites,20 yo guys are adopting Us,Brits,Polish war graves,in order not to forget them,and put flowers on ,once or twice a year.I say:that's an honorable and sensed gesture,the less we can do for them...

[lithgow]

Hello-why do you think the watch is associated with the D-Day landings? Pocket watches had been replaced by wrist watches for general use by 1944 especially by young men in the military-given that the beaches in Normandy were popular holiday destinations for decades before the war I would think it more likely it was lost sometime then-always a problem with finding stuff in a well trafficked area.

[sebfrench76]

Your point of view is very sensfull,the starting of this topic was:how much is it worth.So,all suspucions are possible,yours,as mine...

[lithgow]

I'm not saying it's impossible for the watch to be a 6.6.44 relic but it's less likely than other explanations without further evidence. Anything 'found' like that will be of more interest to the finder who knows where and when it was obtained than someone who wasn't there.