When George W Bush began shaking hands with enthusiastic well-wishers in Albania he was wearing a watch. When he stopped a few minutes and dozens of hearty welcomes later, he was not.
What happened to the watch became the subject of intense international speculation yesterday.
The Albanian media and websites, which carried video of the event in Fushe Kruje, 15 miles north of Tirana on Sunday, speculated that the best-protected man in the world had been fleeced.
Pictures show the president starting his walk along the crowd with the watch on his left wrist. In the next, a firm hand covers the relevant part of his arm, and in the last his wrist is bare and Mr Bush is gazing down as if searching for something.
Albania's police chief, perhaps sensitive to his compatriots' reputation for crime, moaned: "This is not true."
A White House spokesman explained: "The president put it in his pocket and it returned safely home." However, none of the footage shows the president removing his watch.
An Albanian bodyguard who accompanied Mr Bush said he had seen one of his US colleagues from the Secret Service bend down and pick up the watch. Neither explanation is likely to silence the conjecture.
If lost, the watch will not be hard to replace - it was a £25 Timex. It will be easy to trace however. It is inscribed "George W Bush, President, January 20, 2001".
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