Watch

Beneath the simple ‘1950s dress watch’ styling, the Jaeger LeCoultre Geophysic hides a lot of post-war tech.

Introduced in 1960, the Bulova Accutron 214 was one of the electronic trailblazers.

Watches with provenance will naturally command a premium.

Brand names are everything in watch collecting.

The wristwatch, which began to replace the pocket watch in the First World War, really came into its own with the production of bespoke ‘tool’ watches for submariners and airmen later in the century

Estimated at $2000-3000, this Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref 1491 sold for $37,500 (£31,250) at Roland Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) .

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

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 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).

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

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

Egyptian antiquities and Rolex are a hit in first sale of the year held at Surrey golf club

Leslie Fleischman runs Vintage Watch Room London, which specialises in 20th century watches marketed as ‘both affordable and stylish’.

The Rolex Deep Sea Special, with its remarkable bubble case capable of withstanding huge pressure, was created in the early 1950s to test just how deep a diving watch could go.

Enicar watches do not have the instant brand recognition of a Rolex or Omega but they do share many of the same parts.

The impact of the First World War on the wristwatch as an accessory deemed suitable for men is well known.

If ever there were a price to demonstrate just how important condition has become in the top end of the collecting market then it is the record-breaking SFr2.55m (£2.065m) for a reference CK2915 Speedmaster at Phillips (26/21% buyer's premium) in Geneva on November 5.

Tom B has been interested in antiques since youth when he accompanied his father around car boots and charity shops. He founded GungaDin Watches in 2015 focusing on vintage and pre-owned timepieces.