JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dean Bird is a retired history teacher with an eye for detail. He has a picture of his grandfather, and of his father, what's missing is a family heirloom; a Waltham pocket watch.
"It is my father's watch, which was given to him by his father," he said.
It is now his watch
Bird, 76, said it is the only item he has from his father and he does not have it.
"I don't know where it is," he said," I want it back."
Now in a fight with both prostate and colon cancers, he's decided to give the pocket watch to his adopted grandson but he doesn't have it.
Several months ago he took it to a jeweler to be restored and said that was the last time he saw it.
"I did not pick it up," he said," I do have senior moments, but I did not pick it up."
Ken Setser is the jeweler who restored the watch. He worked on it, he said it was in the store but he does not know its whereabouts.
"We have no idea whether it is missing or given to the wrong person or just misplaced," he said.
Setser said in forty years of business this a first. He is heartbroken.
"I am confident it is somewhere here in the shop," said Setser.
He said he could give Bird a new watch but he knows the value of the one that is missing; to the family it is priceless.
"We've never tried to avoid him," said Setser, "we are trying our best to find it."
Bird said he ready to pay a reward for the watch, just in case it was given to someone else.
Setser said he will continue to look for the watch, while Bird is still hoping it will be found.
"Its been in the family since 1900 when it was made," said Bird," I want the watch."