Pocket Rocket

Why does the pocket watch refuse to die?

- Charlie Lim

In December 2015, Patek Philippe’s Henry Graves Supercomplication, a weighty pocket watch commissioned by the namesake banker and delivered back in 1933, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s Geneva for US$24 million – a record for the world’s priciest timepiece. Naturally, it prompted auctioneers to hail the second coming of the pocket watch.

Ever-present? Yes. Resurgent? Well, not quite – or at least not yet. Like the typewriter and other such quaint but impractical things, the pocket watch may still exist in the market today, but only at its fringe. Barring newsmakers such as the aforementioned Patek Philippe timekeeper and Vacheron Constantin’s Ref. 57260 (more on this later), it has, by and large, gone the way of the dodo. Why then, does this archaic object continue to turn up in various brands’ catalogues, and what place does it have within a collector’s line up?

But first, a little history. The demise of the pocket watch was precipitated by war. Although wristwatches have always existed in various forms, often going by other names such as “arm watch” or “strap watch”, they were for the longest time considered frivolous, and rather bewilderingly, the exclusive domain of women. Men were inclined to keep such delicate objects in their pockets, lest they brave the elements unnecessarily and suffer damage.