“He was like a knight in shining armor,” one British tourist, who was in Mauritius last year for her friend’s wedding, told The Wall Street Journal. But she wasn’t talking about the groom on his big day.
Instead, she was referring to Zoël Manguillier, a 61-year-old Speedo-wearing metal detectorist, who’d found her friend’s wedding ring after it went missing on the beach.
On the island, Manguillier is the go-to guy for this exact predicament, which is actually pretty common — an estimated 10%-40% of men lose their wedding rings at some point, per Business Insider — especially around honeymoon/wedding hotspots.
- (It’s not that hard to imagine a ring slipping off the sunscreen-slicked finger of a cocktail-wielding newlywed.)
In fact, it’s common enough that he and others like him have made careers of it as professional wedding ring finders. And with gold prices surging, the niche gig is reportedly becoming more popular.
Trouble in paradise
In Mauritius, Manguillier has located ~1k rings over the past 30+ years by wading through sea and sand, equipped with his submersible metal detector and yellow headphones.
- He charges based on the length of the search — in one case, $400 for a couple hours of scanning the ocean floor at night — but only requests gas money if he’s unable to find it.
In Antigua, Winston Merchant, who’s been at it since 1998, claims a 95% success rate, per BI.
- Using a metal detector and a sort of colander, he fished out one man’s wedding band in under two hours, charging a flat rate of $200 for the service.
The services aren’t necessarily cheap (neither is the equipment, which can add up to well over $1k), but you can’t always put a price on sentimental value.
As for the people losing jewelry elsewhere…
… and the growing number of metal detectorists who lack the local notoriety of word-of-mouth references, there are platforms making it easier to connect the two.
- Ring Finders boasts a network of 400 reward-based metal detectorists, who pay $195 annually to be listed on the site’s directory.
- Meanwhile, the UK’s National Ring Recovery Service, whose 5k+ members take the whole “sentimental value is priceless” thing more literally, offers free jewelry hunting for those who can’t afford to pay for it.
