I had a meeting yesterday that was north of my school and would finish just after 1pm. I knew it would not be worth it to return to work so I made plans to go detecting to a northern beach that I don’t go to often because the waves and the swells there are usually slamming. I had just downloaded a “surf report app” for my phone and it had stated that the conditions would be calm. Low tide would be after 5pm so it was not the ideal window but it was an opportunity detect and had to be taken. 
I prepared the CZ with fresh batteries the night before and had all my gear ready to go to load in the car the following morning. It’s been cold this past week so I decided to bring the wet suit and weight belt along as well. The meeting ended and I took off to the beach. 
After going through some frustrating road work delays that I went through, 
I arrived 20 minutes later than I should have. Still I was parked before 2pm. I got ready but I decided to leave the wetsuit and weight belt behind. I figured if I got to the water and it was too cold I would go back and put it on.
When I arrived to the beach, I saw lots of people on it but nobody in the water. I dipped my toes in and thought it was no colder than the last time I went in so it was going to be no wet suit for me. I started hunting and even though the water seemed calmer than it’s ever been there I was still getting pulled in and out by the swells. For about 2 hours I went in and out of the water mixing in some wet sand hunting whenever I saw any promising feature to detect. Good targets during this time were only some “me” pennies.
I was resigned to think that I was going to have a horrible hunt. 
At about 4pm, I noticed some underwater sand bars starting to show offshore so I decided to stay in the water for the last 2 hours. I got my 1st quarter. At about 4:30, I was starting to shiver a little from the cold and my teeth chattered a bit. 
Within a few minutes of that I got a nice sounding target and got it up. I couldn’t believe it was a watch. Then I look at it and see the “Rolex” symbol and the clasp. 
I noticed it wasn’t running and was stuck on “6” on the date. Like a good 
I then quickly and professionally put it away in the zippered compartment in the back of my bathing suit. I didn’t think it could be real. But could it? 
Sometime in the next half hour I noticed the beach was empty about a block along either direction from me. I took the watch out to examine it a bit more. I noticed it was heavy, much heavier than fake ones that I have handled in the past. It had heft to it. I also noticed the second hand was now running. I put it away again desiring to find some real gold and continued hunting thinking it was a nice watch, even if it was fake, but it couldn’t possibly be real. The rest of the hunt until nearly 6 continued. Another quarter and a set of matching junk earrings. I called it a day and went home. I took a couple of pictures of the phone and sent it to some buddies. They were giving me some “fake vs. real” tips and the watch passed them all. At this point, an excited nervousness was creeping into me. I am now thinking OMG what have I done!?! 
After arriving home, showering and eating dinner, I went to see a buddy of mine that was a former jeweler. He held it in his hand and immediately said “it’s real or the highest quality fake I’ve ever seen”. I am now at this point 90% certain its real. I will be taking it to a watch/jewelry person to verify it 100%, fit it perfectly, and give it a good cleaning. I believe it was in the water for 8 days if it was lost this month. I have looked up the serial# that was in the inner ring and it was production was somewhere between 2011-16. I will not be selling this and I have already promised it to my son as a graduation present from law school. He starts college this coming year so I will have a few years to enjoy it!
*(Where does one go after possibly finding every beach detectorist’s bucket list detecting dream except retirement? Well I still have a Spanish silver left on my dream list!!! So I will still begrudgingly be out there amongst the waves…
)
I prepared the CZ with fresh batteries the night before and had all my gear ready to go to load in the car the following morning. It’s been cold this past week so I decided to bring the wet suit and weight belt along as well. The meeting ended and I took off to the beach. After going through some frustrating road work delays that I went through, I arrived 20 minutes later than I should have. Still I was parked before 2pm. I got ready but I decided to leave the wetsuit and weight belt behind. I figured if I got to the water and it was too cold I would go back and put it on. When I arrived to the beach, I saw lots of people on it but nobody in the water. I dipped my toes in and thought it was no colder than the last time I went in so it was going to be no wet suit for me. I started hunting and even though the water seemed calmer than it’s ever been there I was still getting pulled in and out by the swells. For about 2 hours I went in and out of the water mixing in some wet sand hunting whenever I saw any promising feature to detect. Good targets during this time were only some “me” pennies.
I was resigned to think that I was going to have a horrible hunt. At about 4pm, I noticed some underwater sand bars starting to show offshore so I decided to stay in the water for the last 2 hours. I got my 1st quarter. At about 4:30, I was starting to shiver a little from the cold and my teeth chattered a bit. Within a few minutes of that I got a nice sounding target and got it up. I couldn’t believe it was a watch. Then I look at it and see the “Rolex” symbol and the clasp. I noticed it wasn’t running and was stuck on “6” on the date. Like a good I then quickly and professionally put it away in the zippered compartment in the back of my bathing suit. I didn’t think it could be real. But could it? Sometime in the next half hour I noticed the beach was empty about a block along either direction from me. I took the watch out to examine it a bit more. I noticed it was heavy, much heavier than fake ones that I have handled in the past. It had heft to it. I also noticed the second hand was now running. I put it away again desiring to find some real gold and continued hunting thinking it was a nice watch, even if it was fake, but it couldn’t possibly be real.
The rest of the hunt until nearly 6 continued. Another quarter and a set of matching junk earrings. I called it a day and went home. I took a couple of pictures of the phone and sent it to some buddies. They were giving me some “fake vs. real” tips and the watch passed them all. At this point, an excited nervousness was creeping into me. I am now thinking OMG what have I done!?! After arriving home, showering and eating dinner, I went to see a buddy of mine that was a former jeweler. He held it in his hand and immediately said “it’s real or the highest quality fake I’ve ever seen”. I am now at this point 90% certain its real. I will be taking it to a watch/jewelry person to verify it 100%, fit it perfectly, and give it a good cleaning. I believe it was in the water for 8 days if it was lost this month. I have looked up the serial# that was in the inner ring and it was production was somewhere between 2011-16. I will not be selling this and I have already promised it to my son as a graduation present from law school. He starts college this coming year so I will have a few years to enjoy it!
*(Where does one go after possibly finding every beach detectorist’s bucket list detecting dream except retirement? Well I still have a Spanish silver left on my dream list!!! So I will still begrudgingly be out there amongst the waves…
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What a great find and post! Gives hope to all of us! 'Felix Pennies' my @ss! 
PS CT Curt said he lost his Rolex detecting north Beach just this week 
