Watches

It's possible that the wife won't know the approximate pre-owned value, nor would she now how to liquidate them for the best value.

If you are interested in the watches, perhaps you could offer her a sum that she would accept (let her come up with the price). Maybe you can pick them all up for $25k and also take them off her hands.

I had a relative do something similar. She was executor to an estate and there was a huge coin collection. She didn't know what to do with it and she wasn't about to have a thousands of coins individually appraised. She doesn't even know how to contact a professional coin appraiser. So she ended up selling it to a collector for pennies on the dollar (no pun intended) just to get rid of them.

I would turn them over to her and ask if you could keep one, as a momento.

The more shady option would be to turn them all over, aside from the one you want to keep.

Easier this way? Yes.

Does this put you in an ethical and legal grey area? Also yes.

Let's see them

What kind of watches we talking about here?

Here’s my morally grey and sketchy opinion…

Give the whole collection to his wife, over lunch. Make sure she understands that nobody knows about them, especially the tax collector.

no one knows that OP has the watches. No one, Not even the wife. There’s no evidence, no proof, nothing that would point to him for having the watches IF it was a private conversation (No text messages, no paper trails)— he could easily withhold that information if he wants to. Watches can easily be hidden. For all the wife and the police know, he could have just lost them, gave them away, etc. Also what do you mean? He can easily sell them to a random pawn shop in a different state/country years and years down the line if he wants to. No one’s gonna care/check a decade later.

i’m sorry for the loss of your friend. she

You get to keep one. ☝️

facepalm

no one knows that OP has the watches. No one, Not even the wife. There’s no evidence, no proof, nothing that would point to him for having the watches IF it was a private conversation (No text messages, no paper trails)— he could easily withhold that information if he wants to. Watches can easily be hidden. For all the wife and the police know, he could have just lost them, gave them away, etc. Also what do you mean? He can easily sell them to a random pawn shop in a different state/country years and years down the line if he wants to. No one’s gonna care/check a decade later.

if your friend had a net worth of 10mil+ keep ‘em, that’s a drop in the bucket and they won’t ever know, if it’s under 10 (or ur feeling worried) keep a few and give the rest to the wife (he’s your friend, just say he gifted them to you as bday gifts if anyone ever asks, maybe get an engraving on em if it’s a metal case back, it will be a good tribute to him at the least).

If his wife would just sell em and spend the 200k on clothes and travel that’s beyond fucked.

Looking after them and keeping the secret was fine while your friend was still alive however he isn't. As such they are now no longer legally his and certainly not yours, instead belonging to the person to whom they were willed or the estate if they were not specifically bequeathed and if in the future it should somehow arise that he owned these watches and you kept them, well that's theft. Your problem is how to tell the wife. If you have kept these a secret will she think you're withholding anything else?

Was there an attorney involved in settling the estate? Maybe have a chat to them.

I’d love to see a male-female breakdown of the commenters for return/keep. Let’s reverse the situation and suppose the “wife” let her friend hold $200k in jewelry? All else being the same, would the sage advise change? Curiosity, nothing more. The reality is the watches belong to the rightful heir and as there is no will, that would be the spouse. And the post really sounds like a “made for ethics class supposition” anyway.