Pocket watch

Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar were sold together as a single lot in London on December 9.

Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-73), a member of the famed Courvoisier family of Swiss watchmakers, specialised in the production of watches with portraits of 19th century royalty, such as Queen Victoria, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte or, in the case of watches sold in London and Stuttgart, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I.

Early November is always a busy time for pocket watch collectors. In the space of a few days, specialist sales are traditionally held in Switzerland and Germany which offer a broad selection of historical watches for all tastes and most budgets.

A simple Edwardian open face silver pocket watch used on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition sold for £2600 at Kinghams (26% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh.

An unusual 19th century gold watch by the Swiss maker Sylvain Mairet caught the eye of numerous bidders at a recent sale at Dr Crott (25% buyer’s premium) in Mannheim.

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

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.

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.

This remarkable Charles II period silver clock-watch with alarm appeared for sale at Wotton Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire this month.

A single-owner collection of rare 17th to 19th century pocket watches in Australia achieved a white-glove result with 95% of the sale going to international buyers

An early pocket watch by Abraham Louis Breguet with the low serial number 104 was one of the highlights of a recent watch sale at Cortrie (21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg.

Camerer Cuss watches carry a certain cachet.

In Norman Dean’s day, to be a watch collector was to collect pocket watches. In today’s market, when the 20th century mechanical wristwatch is king, demand for pocket watches is now markedly segmented.

Any gold ‘wandering hour’ watch made prior to the introduction of the balance spring is a rarity.