Smith pocket watch fetches record $4.9m after fake Omega

A pocket watch created by renowned UK watchmaker Roger Smith sold for $4.9 million, a record result for the same auction house recently caught in a scandal involving a faked Omega Speedmaster.

Phillips sold the Roger Smith ‘Pocket Watch Number Two,’ in an auction in New York over the weekend. The yellow-gold watch, with perpetual calendar, tourbillon and moonphase complications was built by Smith over five years entirely from handcrafted parts. He delivered it to watchmaker George Daniels in 1998 for his approval, after which Daniels accepted Smith as an apprentice.

The price is the highest ever paid at auction for a British watch and the fourth-highest for a pocket watch. Phillips says it sold $26.4 million worth of watches at its auction, with all of the lots offered finding buyers.

Phillips said last week it was the victim of “alleged criminal activity” involving former employees of Omega who were involved in a scheme to sell a faked Omega Speedmaster for a record $3.3 million in 2021. Omega, which bought the watch at the Phillips auction, now says the timepiece was a so-called “Frankenstein” watch, composed of an amalgam of mostly authentic parts from other vintage watches.

Patek auction

Other highlights from a weekend full of timepiece auctions in New York included the Sotheby’s sale of a rare Patek Philippe 1518 ‘Pink on Pink’ gold perpetual calendar chronograph for almost $3.9 million.

The watch, housed in a rose gold case with a salmon dial, was one of only 15 known to exist and had a pre-auction estimate of $2.5 million to $4.5 million.

At the same Sotheby’s auction, an Omega Speedmaster ‘Broad Arrow’ reference 2915 from 1958, a similar reference to the ‘Frankenstein watch’ sold by Phillips in 2021, didn’t find a buyer.

Phillips, however, did sell a similar watch at its auction on the weekend. A Speedmaster Broad Arrow from 1959 sold for $53,340, according to the results on its website.

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