Premier auction house Sotheby's to sell Lord Nelson's watch
09 Aug '05
8 min read
Nelson's watch is a very rare surviving example of one of the most sophisticated time pieces of the period – Josiah Emery's lever escapement watch. Heralded as one of the greatest watchmakers of his day, and heavily patronised by the aristocracy and the royal family alike, Emery3 (c.1725-1794) was one of the first watchmakers to employ the revolutionary lever escapement in his watches - the key element of every mechanical watch to this day.
No more than 22 examples of Emery's lever watches are known to survive today and, of those, none has a more extraordinary history than No.1104, which was carried by Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. With precise timing such as that provided by Emery's pocket watch, a competent sailor could accurately work out his position on the globe, and so – in terms of technical achievement at the time – Emery's watch might be compared to the recent advances in gauging global positioning through satellite.
It is unlikely that Nelson purchased the watch brand new from Emery's shop in Charing Cross. When the watch was completed in around 1787, Nelson, then a little known captain, simply did not have the means to purchase such an expensive and exclusive timekeeper, which would have cost him at least £100 at the time.
It is possible that he bought the watch with hard-earned prize money later, perhaps following his triumphant return to London, after the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 when he was promoted rear-admiral and knighted by the king. More likely, however, he purchased it, or received it from an admirer, after his great victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.
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