President Theodore Roosevelt's trusted timepiece is back at his Long Island home in Cove Neck, decades after disappearing
Pictured is a silver pocket watch that belonged to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, which is now on display at his former Long Island property. Federal officials said someone stole it 37 years ago from Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, a crime that remains unsolved. Credit: Howard Schnapp
It was ticking in Theodore Roosevelt’s pocket when he and his Rough Riders charged into battle in Cuba in 1898, and he had it years after his presidency while facing death during an Amazon River expedition in 1914.
But the Waltham pocket watch, a gift from the 26th U.S. president’s sister, mysteriously vanished on July 20, 1987, according to federal officials. They said someone stole it from a display at Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo.
More than three decades later, the silver timepiece is back on the Long Island property that Roosevelt called home — and again on public display.
National Park Service officials unveiled the watch, inscribed with the president’s name, Thursday morning on the front porch of Roosevelt's former home at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Cove Neck.
Federal investigators renewed their focus on the watch's theft after it reappeared in 2023 for private sale at an auction house in Florida.
“In early March 2023, National Park Service special agents, assisted by members of the FBI's Art Crime Team, seized the pocket watch prior to the scheduled auction,” said Jonathan Parker, the Long Island historic site's superintendent.
Authorities haven't filed any charges in the case, but said Thursday it remains an active investigation.
Roosevelt, who was president from 1901 to 1909, died in 1919 at the age of 60.
His sister, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, gave the watch to him in 1898, just before he led the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, during the Spanish-American War.
“This personally engraved watch became a cherished family gift for the future president,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “Its importance to him is represented by the many years and thousands of miles that it spent traveling by his side.”
Clare Connelly, the cultural resources chief at the Cove Neck site, said the watch would have been a practical possession — the kind Roosevelt would need on the battlefield.
“He would have felt its weight and referred to it to gauge the time just before charging into battle,” Connelly said.
But Roosevelt also could have considered it a good-luck charm from a sibling, she added.
In 1909, Roosevelt brought the watch on a hunting trip to Africa, according to Connelly. She said the timepiece was damaged during his near-fatal trip to South America five years later, when his leg became infected and he battled malaria. The trip permanently affected his health.
The timepiece now is on display at the Old Orchard Museum at the Cove Neck site.
Tweed Roosevelt, 82, a great grandson of the former president, on Thursday called the effort to return the watch to his family’s property “extraordinary.”
He added: “I don't often feel a connection to TR, but with this watch I do because I think it's really TR coming back to his house.”
Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the City of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com.
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