A metal detectorist finds a Rolex watch in the same field that was eaten by a cow half a century ago and returns it to its 95-year-old owner.

It traveled through four stomachs of a cow and languished in a field for four decades.

So perhaps it’s not so surprising that former dairy farmer James Steele’s Rolex watch no longer keeps time. In addition, the face has acquired a rather unhealthy color.

However, Steele, now 95, is delighted that it has finally been found and returned to him.

He lost the watch when the strap broke in the 1970s. Searches came up empty and a veterinarian told him a cow had probably eaten it with a mouthful of grass, so he abandoned the search and replaced it.

But now metal detectorist Liam King has returned the watch to the owner of Treflach Hall in Morda, Shropshire.

James Steele’s Rolex (right) was returned to him by metal detectorist Liam King (left)

It traveled through four stomachs of a cow and languished in a field for four decades. So perhaps it’s not so surprising that former dairy farmer James Steele’s Rolex watch no longer keeps time. In addition, the face has acquired a rather unhealthy color.

Steele lost the watch when the strap broke in the 1970s. Searches came up empty and a veterinarian told him that a cow had probably eaten it with a mouthful of grass, so he abandoned the search and replaced it (in the photo: Mr. Steele, circa 1950).

James Steele, 95, was wearing his flash watch in 1974 when the strap came loose and one of his dairy cows mocked the watch. He thought the watch would eventually “come around,” but it didn’t, and he eventually bought a new Rolex (on the right, the old one on the left).

“I never thought I’d see the watch again,” Mr. Steele said yesterday. But I already have it. I only have half of the bracelet; the other half must have disintegrated. The face has taken on a strange color, but it has not rusted.

He praised the detectorist who found the watch, saying he “very easily could not have confessed” to the discovery. It will remain just a memory because repairing it “would cost a bomb,” she added.

His family has farmed the land at Treflach Hall, with his son Andrew taking the reins for decades.

Assuming the Rolex was lost inside a cow and never seen again, Steele immediately bought another one to replace it. The Rolex became a family story for Andrew and his brothers, but no one expected to see it again.

Steele said he walked the field again and again after losing his guard “one freezing morning when we were taking the cows to the vet.”

He added: “We have been plowing the fields every three years, but now it is just grass.”

Cows have four stomachs to break down the coarse foods they eat.