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.

Do you get a gold watch after working for the “state” for 20 years?