Pocket watch

A rare ‘pocket watch’ sold by East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) was more surveillance device than timekeeper.

Dual time zones watches first came into fashion in France, where they were used to show both ‘time’ in the traditional manner and also Revolutionary time, a short-lived idea based on the decimal system.

A superb collection of 61 pocket watches drew strong demand at a Surrey auction last week as remote bidders, using the phone and online platforms, competed for some outstanding 17th, 18th and 19th century examples.

Second-dibs sales at regional salerooms – those that follow after a major London auctioneer has cherry-picked the contents of a stately country house – can sometimes acquire the slighting epithet of ‘crumbs from a rich man’s table’.

Time is of the essence in the story of Speed Menefee (1879-1968), the shortest-serving city mayor in US history – and original owner of a pocket watch offered at the Chester Decorative Antiques & Art Fair.

Did a watch offered for sale in Carlisle at the end of July once belong to Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)? Two centuries of provenance suggest it did.

A silver pocket watch by ‘father of British clockmaking’ Thomas Tompion has been literally unearthed in Northumberland.

An 18th century pocket watch by Gibraltarian goldsmith Henry Cowper emerged for sale at Rowley’s auction house in Ely. It belonged to a Lincolnshire private collector who bought it over 50 years ago for £1 from a former resident of the Rock.

When Alan Wardle’s niece searched online for family history she uncovered his father’s long-lost First World War presentation pocket watch coming up at auction.

A gift from the founder of the Tata global business empire to the architect who designed his Bombay headquarters, this late 19th century Patek Philippe gold hunter pocket watch was an eyecatcher at Andrew Smith (19% buyer’s premium) at Itchen Stoke on September 12.