Watches & Watch accessories

Not to be confused with the modern reissues, the original Vulcain Cricket was marketed in 1947 as the world’s first wristwatch with an alarm.

Over a century old, Cartier’s most famous watch is seemingly ubiquitous on the market. But pre-war examples of the Tank are scarcer than one might imagine.

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

Lemania is a name that should be as well-known as that of Omega or Tissot. The firm – dubbed by one watch blogger as ‘the greatest maker of watches that you may never have heard of’ – provided every single chronograph movement that those much better-known brands used until the 1970s.

The Longines WWW is deemed the second rarest of the ‘Dirty Dozen’. These watches, made by 12 different Swiss brands, were ordered by the British Ministry of Defence during the tail-end of the Second World War for issue to army ground personnel.

The market for vintage mechanical wristwatches, which began in earnest in Europe in the 1990s, is not yet fully 30 years old but is maturing rapidly.

From the 1950s-70s, the Rolex produced a range of memorabilia given only to dealers to promote the brand. A vibrant market has grown in the past decade that has broadened the world of watch collectors beyond horology.

The Heuer Monaco, the world’s first automatic chronograph with a square case, was launched at the Basel fair in 1969 with the retail price set at $200.

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.

As collectors are squeezed out of the market for watches by Rolex and Omega, prices for vintage chronographs by ‘lesser’ makers are steadily rising in value.

This ‘pre-Moon’ Omega Speedmaster purchased new in Berlin in 1960, came for sale at Aston’s (24% buyer’s premium) in Dudley on June 11.

A luxurious watch with a British royal connection went under the hammer last month at Cortrie (20% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg.

Since its launch in 1953 there have been well over a dozen distinct references of the Rolex Submariner, with all sorts of minutiae adding up to several hundred different variants.

An unusual late Victorian silver pocket watch by Herbert Blockley of London sold for an unexpected £2800 at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Stoke-on- Trent.

Association with the name boosts value as part of a sale dedicated to the poet.

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.

Battered and dust-engrained when found in a basement during a Lake District house clearance, an early unsigned brass lantern clock generated great excitement at Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s (18% buyer’s premium).

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’.