Sotheby’s will once again auction George Daniels’ celebrated Space Traveller pocket watch.
The sale will take place in London on September 19.
The watch tracks both solar and side-reel time
Daniels (1926-2011) is among the most acclaimed watchmakers of recent times.
He began his career in the army in 1944, where a burgeoning interest in watches saw him take on some small repairs for friends.
In the early 1960s he opened a watch repair shop. By the end of the decade he had built his first pocket watch.
The present specimen is one of two examples of this watch. It’s known as the Space Traveller, as Daniels rigged it with everything an astronaut would need on a journey to another planet.
It’s able to display both solar time (the variety we are most familiar with on Earth) and sidereel time - which measures the movement of the Earth against the stars, rather than the Sun.
Daniels made this specimen in 1982, after he sold the original to a collector in Switzerland.
It’s expected to sell for around £1.8m ($2.3m).
The piece last sold for a record £1.3m ($1.6m) at Sotheby’s in 2012, more than doubling its £600,000 ($777,540) estimate and setting the record for a Daniels watch.
Could it pull off a similar result here?
Demand is certainly high enough. Just look at this recent sale of a George Daniels 1970 gold twin barrel tourbillon, which achieved £464,750 ($602,269) against a valuation of £350,000 ($453,565).
Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about watch and jewellery auctions.
