Nah, It’s simpler than that. And this seems to be fresh water. It’s worse in salt water. The salt water makes the skin slippery and rings and such just slide right off. I had a scuba shop for years and my beach combing divers were always bringing in rings, St Christophers silver coins and the like. I always bought their finds to keep them motivated. When the price of gold went up in the late 70’s I sold a cup full of gold rings. No way to find the owners since most were tourist types and long gone by the time the things were found.
Bottom line: take off your jewelry when diving/swimming. Metal banded diving watches work just fine.
Hey! One hundred and seventy of those gold rings were mine! I lost them over the decades! You owe me!
Oh, I have to identify them?
Ok.
They were gold and circular.
Just ask Isildur from The Lord of the Rings about that.