Collection

Timepieces

Historic and military horology with documented service history and original condition.

Vintage Omega Seamaster 300 military wristwatch with black dial and NATO-style strap. — Representative collection image · Clyde94 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

How we catalogue it

Emphasis falls on original, unrefinished condition and on watches whose service history can be followed. Replacement parts, redials and case work are identified in the entry. Movements are photographed and recorded before sale.

Military · Historic · Unrestored

Currently catalogued02

Where an entry has not yet been photographed its plate is shown blank. Featherstone Vaults photography replaces them entry by entry; no stand-in imagery is used.

Jaeger-LeCoultre rectangular wristwatch in 18ct yellow gold, seen from the front against a black ground. A champagne dial with the applied JL emblem and baton hour markers, a textured gold bezel and faceted lugs, on a green croc-effect strap.

FV-TP-003

Jaeger-LeCoultre Rectangular Wristwatch, 18ct Yellow Gold

c. 1960s–1970s · Switzerland

£2,950

FV-TP-0008

British Military Wristwatch

Second World War · 1945 · Switzerland, for British service issue

£6,400

Buying in this department

What we look for

Original, unrefinished condition. A case that has been polished has lost metal and with it the crispness of its lugs and bevels, and no amount of later work puts that back. We prefer an honest case with wear to a sharp one that has been reworked, and we say which we are selling.

Dials are where most of the value and most of the deception sits. Redials are frequently undisclosed and are often skilled enough to pass a casual look. We examine dials off the movement, under magnification, and the entry states whether the dial, hands and lume are original.

Movement, case and papers

We record movement and case numbers, photograph the movement before sale, and note where a movement and case do not belong together. Where service records, issue records or original papers survive, copies are supplied with the watch.

For military issue watches, the markings on the case back are part of the object's identity. We photograph them as found and do not clean them.

Worth asking

Is the dial original or a redial. Do the movement and case numbers agree with one another and with the records. What has been replaced, including hands, crown, crystal and lume. Has the case been polished. Are there service records.

From the Journal01

Research written against this department: what to check, what the documents should say, and where the record usually stops.

Timepieces
The British W.W.W. “Dirty Dozen” Watches
Twelve Swiss manufacturers supplied Britain's late-war W.W.W. service watch. The watches look simple, but originality, military markings and correct combinations of parts make the field much more exacting than it first appears.
20 September 2026