The primary function of a watch is to keep time, but timepieces of a certain age can also help you look back in time. In the upcoming Christie's Important Pocketwatches and Wristwatches auction next Tuesday, a line-up of vintage and antique timepieces will be taken home by the highest bidders.
These decades-old items are testimony to the history of watchmaking, and a reminder of man's progressive spirit.
Most of them belong to the vintage category, meaning they are old, but less than a century old. There are a few antique pieces that have crossed centuries. One of these is a Swiss-made enamel and diamond-set keyless scarab-form watch and brooch made of 18-karat gold, circa 1890. The maker of this piece is unknown, but it illustrates the period's penchant for elaborately jewelled watches.
The watch itself has a circular gilt-finished jewelled cylinder movement with glazed dust cover, and a white enamel dial with blue and red Arabic numerals. The beetle-form case is amazingly detailed, with translucent blue guilloche enamel and diamond-set wings that open to reveal the time at the press of a gem-set button. The head of the bug is made of black enamel and set with yet more diamonds, and there are ruby-set eyes, curved antennae and two front legs holding the matching brooch. The gold stomach of the beetle is also curved with details.
The piece is estimated at US$8,700-11,000, but this could go higher when the bidders make their offers.
Another piece, formerly in the collection of Leon Leroy of the famous French watchmaking family founded in 1785, is a fine, rare and early silver and gilt metal octagonal pendant-form verge watch, made by Pierre Louteau, hailed as maestre horlogeur, horlogier and orlogeur when he worked in Lyon between 1603 and 1628. This pendant watch, with only one hand, looks back to an era when time was only kept hourly.