Watches & Watch accessories

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.

A look ahead to auction house and dealer highlights this summer.

This English deck chronometer is Molyneux No 1326 – made by the London maker Robert Molyneux in c.1830.

Can anyone help, please, or point me in the direction of someone who can?

The recent auction at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) included the firm’s biannual horological offering.

Described by Bonhams (15% buyer’s premium) as “the ultimate in rally equipment from the 1960s”, a pair of stopwatches mounted on an original Heuer plate intended to be attached to the dashboard of a racing or rally car received a suitably enthusiastic response.

In May 1930 Amy Johnson (1903-41) set off in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth called Jason to become the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. The feat, followed by further long-distance solo and combined flights, earnt her place in aviation history.

Although Roamer fell victim to the ‘quartz crisis’ – the introduction of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s that largely replaced mechanical watches – in the 1950s-60s the firm enjoyed a good reputation as the maker of good-quality, affordable automatic mechanical watches.

The Oysterdate Monte Carlo series were the first chronographs produced by Tudor. A cyclops date magnifier, screw-down pushers and the distinctive dial with angled subsidiaries make them instantly recognisable.