A retired couple from Truro have been reunited with a treasured anniversary watch which had been lost in their garden for years.

David and Linda Nixon found the Omega watch in their garden having lost it back in 2012. The sentimental wristwatch was a wedding gift which had gone missing after Mrs Nixon had been playing with her grandchildren. After searching the house for days, the couple claimed on their home insurance for the loss and replaced it with the settlement received from their insurer Cornish Mutual

Mrs Nixon said: “I wore the watch every day and it was very special to me as we had both bought each other Omega watches during the late 1970’s as a gift when we got married. We searched everywhere but assumed it had gone forever so we claimed on our insurance.”

The couple’s gardener recently dug up the missing watch in an old flower bed that hadn’t been re-planted for years.

“I was delighted when we realised it was the watch,” said Mrs Nixon. “We think it must have been thrown out into the composter and then made its way into the garden. It wasn’t working but we decided it would only be right to go back to our insurance company Cornish Mutual to return the salvage to them. The staff were really helpful and had the watch looked at to see if it could be fixed.”

Cornish Mutual took the watch to Michael Spiers, a local authorised Omega dealer, who advised it would not be salvageable. Local jeweller Time Gone By then cleaned it up.

Arthur Denton, member services advisor at Cornish Mutual said: “We tried our best to get the watch back to its former glory due to its genuine sentimental value. Sadly it couldn’t be salvaged, but we thought it would be nice to get it cleaned up and returned to Mrs Nixon.”