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Roger Smith’s Pocket Watch Number Two sold for $4.9 million during the Phillips New York Watch Auction Eight held June 10 and June 11, setting a new record for any British timepiece while marking the fourth highest price ever achieved for a pocket watch at auction.

The Roger Smith, Pocket Watch Number Two.

The English watchmaker worked for five years to create the watch by hand in order to win the approval of the late George Daniels and secure an apprenticeship in Daniels’ legendary workshop on the Isle of Man.

Case back open view of the Roger Smith, Pocket Watch Number Two.

As Phillips explains “With Pocket Watch Number One rejected by Daniels, it was the perfection of this timepiece – Pocket Watch Number Two – that led Daniels to proclaim to Smith, “You are now a watchmaker.”

The Patek Philippe Ref. 2481 Pristine Forest.

In addition to the Roger Smith sale, two Patek Philippe watches sold for more than $1 million, including the Ref. 2481 Pristine Forest (which sold for $1.1 million) as well as the Philippe Dufour Simplicity 37, which sold for $863,600.

The Audemars Piguet Grand Complication platinum pocket watch, which sold for $635,000, more than ten times its low estimate.

An Audemars Piguet Grande Complication pocket watch in platinum, completed in 2011, sold for $635,000, more than ten times its low estimate.

The Philippe Dufour Simplicity 37 “No. 70”

Watches from Zenith also did well, including a tropical A384 El Primero which sold well past its $6,000-$12,000 estimate to $50,800, setting a new record for a vintage El Primero model. Zenith’s Chronomaster Original Pink “Unique Piece” for Susan G. Komen” sold for $30,480, of which 100% of proceeds, including Buyer’s Premium, will be donated to the breast cancer organization.

The Zenith Chronomaster Original Pink “Unique Piece for Susan G. Komen”

The auction realized total sales of $26.4 million, selling 100% by lot and 100% by value. See the Phillips website for full results and details. 

Following his apprenticeship with the late George Daniels, Roger Smith has taken up the totem as the British master nonpareil. Devoting such exquisite attention to detail for every component of every watch, Smith’s timepieces are a rarity and among the most sought-after among wealthy collectors.

Roger Smith’s 100th watch is a triple calendar. It’s the first in his Series 4 collection.

His most recent watch, an instantaneous triple calendar, here represents only the one-hundredth individual watch made at his Isle of Man atelier over the course of twenty years. Smith’s watches embrace an ethos of subtle complexity and understated ingenuity and finesse. Supremely elegant and easy to read, Smith’s latest creation houses his own manual-wind movement with the updated monobloc co-axial escape wheel.

The entire movement is finished with exquisite fillagree and frosting in gold with components held securely with screws authentically heat-treated to a variegated blue and purple hue.

Smith’s date display is a bracket that circles the perimeter of the dial and frames the current day of the month.

On the dial-side more sophisticated aficionados will note the elegant solution to the day-of-the-month display. Rather than the typical date pointer with a hand that reaches out from the central post, Smith has deftly incorporated a system that uses a bracket that circles the perimeter of the dial and frames the current day of the month, leaving the view of the other displays uninterrupted by an additional hand emanating from the center.

This absolutely stunning timepiece, the first of Smith’s Series 4 collection, can be customized to some extent and is only available by individual consignment for patient collectors. Although the atelier does not advertise prices, you can figure on a starting point in the neighborhood of $300,000.