Watches & Watch accessories

The firm established in Switzerland nearly 140 years ago achieved many ‘firsts’ in chronograph production. ATG considers the market for some of the most famous references from the Navitimer to the ‘Thunderball’ Top Time

Over the years, the Navitimer has undergone a variety of cosmetic and mechanical changes. Pictured here are three iterations of the watch as it evolved across two decades.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” comments Fellows’ watch specialist Kes Crockett. “Jaeger LeCoultre is the best watchmaker in the world. Rolex is without question the most well-known manufacturer and Patek Philippe has produced some of the most collectable watches on the market. However, JLC arguably has a richer and more important horological history than both.”

The Fifty Fathoms watch was born in the 1950s from the encounter between the Swiss firm Blancpain (by then using the legal trading name Rayville) and two French naval officers, Capt Robert Maloubier and Lt Claude Riffaud.

By the end of the First World War it has been estimated that over eight million horses had died.

English names from a defunct clock manufactory were used for familiarity in an export market

A ‘Russian’ tunic from Chanel’s famed Spring 1922 collection sold for €100,000 (£86,000) in Paris – a record for her early work.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

In his diary entry for August 12, 1950, the German writer and Nobel Prize recipient Thomas Mann described a meeting with his daughter-in-law Gret, who had married his youngest son Michael in 1939, and her 10-year-old son Frido in a café in Innsbruck.

The Fine Wristwatches & Pens auction at Chiswick Auctions includes a rare variant of perhaps the most celebrated of all Rolex ‘tool’ watches: a 1970s Submariner with the so-called ‘single red’ Mark IV dial.

Auction consultant tells us about his own collection.

Era of pop art and protests also brought fresh design beyond the earlier ‘tool’ template

A single-owner collection of watches assembled over many decades and spanning 500 years of horology was offered by Aguttes (25/23% buyer’s premium) in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris.

A couple of weeks after the Aguttes watches auction another collection in the same category went under the hammer in Paris.

'Une histoire du temps' (a history of time) is the title of the sale to be held by Aguttes in Neuilly on September 28.

The latest sale of Clocks, Watches, & Scientific Instruments held by Bonhams Skinner (25% buyer’s premium) included one of perhaps only 50 surviving Tornek-Rayville TR-900 stainless steel dive watches.

Two Rolex tool watches were estimated to bring £80,000-120,000 each at a recent Fine Watches sale at Bonhams’ (27.5/25% buyer’s premium).

The reference 3330 antimagnetic is one of the rarest pre-Oyster chronographs made by Rolex.

ATG reports on the market for the Enicar series of watches that were taken to Everest

The watch market can be obsessed with brand names – and the best names do come with a price tag to match.