It was an ordinary morning. Stephen was digging up his garden one afternoon to make way for his new seedlings. He was retiring soon and decided to start up one of his hobbies, gardening. But little did he know that this ordinary morning was about to change his life.

As he was digging through the soil, he was surprised to find an old watch. He couldn’t take a good look at it without his glasses, so he set it aside for the meantime. At that moment, he had no idea how much that watch would change his life.

Once Stephen was done working on his seedlings, he took his accidental find with him into the house. He immediately showed it to his wife, Mary. They both wondered who owned the watch. Stephen had never lost a watch before, so they were sure it was not his. The watch was also very old, and Stephen and Mary had just moved into the house a couple of years ago. Judging by the way the watch looks and how it is completely covered in a hardened crust of mud, the watch must have been buried there many years ago.

Stephen could not help but wonder if the watch was worth a lot of money. He’d heard of some old watches that did not look like much but turned out to be worth millions, especially the very old models of luxury brands. But with all the mud on it, Stephen could not get a better look at the watch. However, he could tell it was a unique model.

His first instinct was to rinse the watch under the faucet and clean it. Mary immediately stopped him and told him it was a bad idea. Mary explained that if the watch was really old, putting it under running water could damage it further and, worse, make it lose its value.

She suggested that she takes the watch to a professional cleaner if he really thinks it is worth something. But there was a catch: the jeweler warned him that the service needed to clean the old watch and have it restored was an expensive one. But Stephen also knew it was a reasonable price. Cleaning an old watch in that condition would not be an easy job.

When Stephen gave the jeweler the watch, he immediately looked surprised, then called the cleaner. The cleaner came and looked almost as shocked as the jeweler when he saw the watch. He had not seen a watch in a condition as terrible as this one. The cleaner told Stephen that he should not get his hopes up that there would be something salvageable under all that dirt. Nevertheless, he told Stephen not to worry; he gave his promise that he would do his best to clean up the watch.

Stephen asked if he could stay around and watch since there was no other customer and it was a slow day. They let him hang around; even the jeweler was curious to know what lies underneath all the mud. And to their surprise, there actually was something left to salvage once the dirt was off. It was revealed that the watch was still in decent form. The glass cover was completely broken, and some of the finer mechanics inside the watch were ruined. The good news is that those parts were not expensive to replace.

Stephen asked if they recognized the model or if they could find the brand of the watch so that they could estimate its value. He was hoping that it would be a luxury brand like Rolex. If this is the case, he and Mary would be rolling in cash soon. But this was not the case. Unfortunately, they could not find any brand name on the watch. The jeweler also said he had not seen anything like it.

After replacing the damaged parts, they gave back the watch to Stephen, saying that it was all that they could do for him for now. Stephen was a bit disappointed; it looked like he wasted a lot of money for nothing. Watches were mostly valued depending on their brand, and it could mean millions. But for an old watch without any brand name, this watch could only cost a few pennies. However, Stephen had a gut feeling that this watch meant something; he should not give up just yet. After all, he already invested money in it.

So Stephen decided to get a second opinion. He tried to look for another jeweler. Stephen found a specialist in the next town. He looked up the jeweler’s name and found good reviews. It took him $250 to clean the watch, and he was hoping he could get some of the money back, even if it was not a luxury brand.

When Stephen finally arrived at the specialist’s shop, he found it odd that the store looked empty. Stephen tried the door and found that it was not locked. As Stephen was taking a look around, something on the wall caught his eye. It was a black and white framed picture of an old man. Stephen could not identify the person, but he was sure that the watch on his arm was the same as the watch that he had found in his backyard. Stephen grabbed the watch from his pocket; it was exactly the same. The first jeweler could not find anything like it, but here it was, clearly on the man’s wrist.

Stephen quickly took a picture of the framed photograph on the wall. Stephen tried to call out for any of the staff, but nobody responded. Stephen decided to leave.

Stephen was able to get home in time for dinner. When Mary asked him about the watch, he made a white lie and told her it was still at the jeweler’s and that they needed more time to clean it. He needed more time to figure out the value of the watch.

After dinner, Stephen tried to do some research online. He did not know where to start and spent hours on his phone but got no results. And just when he was about to give up, he gets a call from an unknown number. It turned out it was the specialist that he tried to visit earlier.

The specialist said he knew he dropped by when he watched the security footage, but then things got weird. Of all the questions he had to ask, the specialist asked why he took a picture of the framed photograph. Stephen was disturbed by this line of questioning, so he hung up. Stephen needed to gather his thoughts; he shut off his phone in a panic so that the specialist wouldn’t be able to call him back.

Stephen decided to go out for a walk to clear his thoughts. Stephen turned his phone on again in case Mary would need him while he was out. It only took a few minutes to get another call from the specialist. The specialist immediately reassured Stephen that he had no bad intentions. He asked him if he could drop by the store again. After all, he was looking for a specialist for something.

Stephen decides to take the risk and told him he could get there in less than an hour. When Stephen got to the specialist’s, he showed the watch and told him he took a picture of the framed photograph because they looked the same. The specialist compared the watch to the one in the picture. He was silent for a while; he then told Stephen that it was best to leave the watch with him for now, for the safety of everyone.

Stephen immediately thought of Mary, who was all alone at home. But since when did owning an old watch become a matter of life or death? The specialist offered no further explanation. He took the watch away and promised he would keep in touch when he gets more details about it.

It only took a few minutes for the special forces to arrive at Stephen’s place. Multiple cars showed up, and without even asking for permission, special forces rushed towards his garden and barricaded it. Nobody can enter the garden, not even Stephen and his wife.

The leader and two other officers asked if they could talk to Stephen and his wife in the living room. They asked how long they had been living in the house, then they asked what kind of changes had been done in the garden ever since they lived there.

Once the interrogation was over, Stephen was surprised to see more people gathering in his garden. There were historical experts, and there were some journalists taking pictures of whatever the special forces were doing. Then Stephen sees a familiar face in the crowd; it was the specialist.

The specialist approached Stephen and introduced him to a representative of the regional museum. It turned out that the old watch belonged to a dictator who had died around the area many years ago, but nobody ever found the body.

When Stephen and his wife heard how much they would be getting from the museum for the watch, they could not help but smile. Let’s just say that the couple does not have to worry about their retirement after all.