One of the World’s Rarest Watches to go Under the Hammer

A rare 300-year-old ‘shutter watch’, believed to be one of only a handful in existence, will go under the hammer at the company’s next Country House Sale on Tuesday 21st February 2012. The Bushman pocket watch, dating back to the early eighteenth century, was made at a key time in clock-making history. Today it’s thought that less than 10 remain in existence. The watch being sold by Sworders is one of a pair; the other is part of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s timekeeping collection. The elaborate design has no hands or numbers on the face, but when the button is pushed, two shutters open, revealing the hour and the minutes.

Sworders’ watch consultant and internationally renowned expert in the history of timekeeping, David Penney, said: “This watch by Bushman dates back to a period when watchmakers were experimenting with new ideas. Four innovative designs were developed and the shutter dial is now one of the most rare and highly sought-after. In its day, a piece like this would have been hugely desirable and only owned by a very wealthy businessman or a member of the gentry. The quality of the decoration on this watch by Bushman is exquisite - it would have been a real crowd-stopper! Why this design never caught on isn’t known and in the 1720s most watchmakers returned to what we now know to be the traditional analogue face.”

Sworder’s Managing Director, Guy Schooling, added: “We can only trace one other watch of this type having come to auction – and that was ten years ago, in New York. In fact, there may only be as few as six of these in the world, making this the perfect time to bid for an important piece of English horological history.”

The silver John Bushman watch, produced around 1710, has a silver embossed case. It is signed ‘Bushman, London’ and will be auctioned on Tuesday 21st February 2012 at a guide price of £5,000 to £7,000.