Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

This category ranges from historical clocks to contemporary jewellery. Dealers tend to specialise in one of these individual areas while many auctions feature separate sections for horology, watches and jewellery as part of their mixed sales.

However, dedicated sales, especially in the jewellery category, are now fairly commonly especially in London, Birmingham and other major centres.

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A Rolex Explorer with an intriguing history

10 March 2025

In 1953, the same year as the successful Mount Everest expedition were equipped with Rolex wristwatches, Rolex released the Oyster Perpetual Explorer.

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Chaumet marriage trousseau more than matches auction expectations

10 March 2025

Tiara takes highest sum as jewellery supplied to an aristocratic family features in Paris sale

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An early Dutch puritan keeps up with Henry Jones

10 March 2025

Among the earliest watches in the auction titled Clocks & Watches Through the Ages held at TW Gaze (26.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Diss, Norfolk, on March 4 was a Dutch timekeeper from the first half the 17th century.

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Previews: Six watches offered at upcoming auctions

10 March 2025

A selection of stand-out watch lots coming up at sales around the UK

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Jeweller Auguste Dutertre found his niche concealing watch movements in ornate cases

10 March 2025

Based in workshops near the Place des Bergues in Geneva in the 1850s-60s, the jeweller Auguste Dutertre (1798-1866) found a niche making so-called ‘bijoux à montres’ - watch movements concealed in notebooks, powder-boxes or, as here, a pair of lorgnettes.

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Watches: Wellington’s gift to opera singer rumoured to be his mistress

10 March 2025

A gold and enamel Dent pocket watch given by Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, to the Italian opera singer Giuseppina Grassini surfaced for sale at an auction in Austria

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‘Bringing the Cotswolds to London’

10 March 2025

Cotswold Art Antiques Chelsea runs from March 20-23 at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London.

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Rolls-Royce timepiece ‘given as Xmas present’

10 March 2025

This silver desk clock designed in the form of a Rolls-Royce radiator grille with a red enamel badge and a miniature Spirit of Ecstasy mascot perched on top is thought to have been given as a Christmas gift by the British luxury car maker to one of its distributors.

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Five questions with jewellery specialist Charlotte Morris Roper

10 March 2025

Charlotte Morris Roper is at the helm of Plaza 20th Century Jewellery, a vintage jewellery business specialising in French and European items with a particular focus on the 1940s-60s.

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Piaget winning at Polo

10 March 2025

Piaget launched its Polo wristwatch model in 1979.

Australian gold rush ring

Memento of the Australian gold rush brings major competition in Devon

05 March 2025

Among the earliest examples of Australian gold rush jewellery are the simple signet rings sold to miners in the settlement of Ballarat in the 1850s as a memento of the boomtown days.

Pocket watch by Lorenz Beha

Pocket watch by murdered Victorian clockmaker triples estimate

05 March 2025

A pocket watch by a watchmaker who was murdered in a highway robbery in 1853 sold at triple its estimate at TW Gaze in Diss, Norfolk

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Pocket watches with historical back-stories bring demand in Exeter auction

03 March 2025

The latest silver and jewellery sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (26/25% buyer’s premium) in Exeter included two Georgian 18ct gold pocket watches from two generations of the Drummond family.

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Oak back on the auction block in Salisbury

03 March 2025

Salisbury saleroom holds specialist offering staged as part of a three-day sale as demand increases

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Cartier Courtauld jewels on display at Eltham Palace after £19,000 auction buy

24 February 2025

Two Cartier brooches commissioned by Sir Stephen Courtauld for his wife have gone on display at Eltham Palace, eight months after they were sold at auction by Dreweatts in Newbury.

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Robert-Houdin mystery clock greeted by real bidder interest

24 February 2025

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-71) began to develop the very first mystery clocks in c.1830.

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Pick of the Week: On the scent of Chanel No 5 classic bottle

10 February 2025

Chanel No 5 was perfected in the late summer and autumn of 1920 by the French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux.

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Titanic watch was actually the highest seller in the regions…

10 February 2025

In last week’s news story about auction house overall sales totals for 2024 (ATG No 2679) we said that the highest-value objects sold in the UK by any regional auction house last year were two Antonine over-lifesize busts of empresses which hammered at £600,000 each at Lyon & Turnbull.

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White glove sale for Bromer collection of Art Nouveau jewellery in New Jersey

10 February 2025

An inheritance influenced Boston dealer duo to turn their collecting interest to a different market

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Previews: issue 2678

27 January 2025

Our selection of lots from 12 upcoming sales

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