Theodore Roosevelt received the watch from his sister and brother-in-law shortly before he went to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, but it was stolen in 1987.
Jason Wickersty, National Park ServiceThe watch vanished for decades before it turned up at a Florida auction house.
In 1971, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, New York, put a pocket watch on display that had once belonged to president Teddy Roosevelt. But during the exhibition, in 1987, someone snatched the watch out of an unlocked case. It’s been missing for decades — until now.
The watch somehow made its way to a Florida auction house, where it was recovered by the National Park Service and the FBI. To Roosevelt’s descendants, it’s “almost as if a piece of [Roosevelt’s] spirit” has returned.
Rediscovering Theodore Roosevelt’s Watch
National Park ServiceRoosevelt first received the watch in 1898.
More than 30 years after Roosevelt’s watch was stolen in Buffalo, it ended up in the hands of Edwin Bailey, the owner of Blackwell Auctions in Clearwater, Florida. Bailey was excited by the inscription of the president’s name, but the watch had come without any documents — so his first step was to try and verify that President Theodore Roosevelt had actually once owned it.
He reached out to two museums associated with Theodore Roosevelt: Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, the site of Roosevelt’s former home, and the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, where Roosevelt took the oath of office following the assassination of William McKinley. Both confirmed that the watch appeared to be authentic.
Then, shortly before putting the watch up for auction in 2023, Bailey was visited by several people who he thought were prospective buyers. Instead, reports the Associated Press, they were FBI agents.
The National Park Service (NPS) — which oversees both Roosevelt sites — and the FBI had been looking for the watch since it was stolen. After recovering it from Bailey, they returned it to Sagamore Hill.
Jason Wickersty, National Park ServiceThe watch had been missing for more than three decades when it turned up in Florida.
“This was feel-good news,” Tweed Roosevelt, the president’s 82-year-old great-grandson, remarked to the Associated Press. “For me, it kind of felt like almost as if a piece of TR’s spirit being returned to Sagamore Hill, like a little bit of him was coming back. And so I felt that was really cool.”
Indeed, the watch, though inexpensive, was important to Roosevelt.
“As it turns out, this isn’t just any old pocket watch,” Tweed Roosevelt explained. “It was a watch that TR placed great sentimental value on.”
The Story Of Theodore Roosevelt’s Watch
“This watch was a fairly pedestrian Waltham 17 jewel watch with an inexpensive coin silver case,” Special Agent Robert Giczy, a member of the FBI Art Crime Team, explained in an FBI press release about the watch. “It’s a ‘Riverside’ grade and model ‘1888’ with a hunter-style case, meaning it has a lid on either side which fold and encase the dial and the movement.”
But though the watch was not valuable, it held great value to Roosevelt. It was a gift to him from his sister, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, and her husband, Douglas Robinson Jr. They gave the watch to Roosevelt just before he sailed to Cuba in 1898 to fight in the Spanish-American War.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard UniversityTheodore Roosevelt in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. His bravery during the conflict made him an American hero.
“Darling Corinne, You could not have given me a more useful present than the watch,” Roosevelt wrote in May 1898. “It was exactly what I wished… Thank old Douglas for the watch — and for his many, many kindnesses.”
Not only did Roosevelt carry the watch with him in Cuba, but historians also believe that he had it with him during his voyages to Africa and the Amazon.
“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 statement.
“Historic objects are powerful because they are literal participants in historic events, and in the case of this storied watch, it is also a beloved family heirloom of a renowned American president. 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.”
After reading about the recovery of Theodore Roosevelt’s pocket watch more than three decades after it was stolen, look through these fascinating facts about every U.S. president. Or, see how Theodore Roosevelt managed to cheat death — again, and again, and again.
