On October 29 Christie's offered in its Melbourne salerooms an array of vintage pocket watches by Cartier as part of a jewellery and decorative art sale. Meanwhile Sydney's Lawson-Menzies has a line-up of prized industrial automaton clocks to be offered at its furniture and decorative arts sale on November 25.

The House of Cartier was founded by Parisian jeweller Louis-Francois Cartier in 1847.

By the 1900s Cartier's grandsons, Louis, Jacques and Pierre, operated highly successful boutiques in Paris, London and New York. The iconic Tank wristwatch was introduced in 1917.

Far less widely known are the firm's pocket watches. Christie's offered eight of these watches. But despite significant pre-sale interest, none of them sold at the auction - though Christie's director Richard Gordon was still saying last week that a sale might proceed later.

The Christie's offering included a platinum cased watch with silvered engine-turned dial, black enamel numerals and blued-steel hands, probably from the 1940s. A band of sapphires is set into the outer edge of the case and even around the bail, or suspension loop. It's super-slim and signed "Cartier, Paris".

Another, probably from a later date, is in a case fashioned from 18-carat gold and rock crystal, with the numerals set in a white enamel band. Another super-thin model has diamonds set around the outer edge of the case, while the back is enamelled with a chinoiserie scene.

Estimates of $10,000 to $20,000-plus for these watches might seem high - but are in line with the $15,000 asked by European specialists Antiquorum a few years ago for a Cartier gold and bloodstone dress watch presented by the publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Automaton industrial clocks generally date from the late 19th century, an era where industry and leisure had been transformed by the steam engine. Most include barometers as well as clocks, and sometimes thermometers. The clocks are set in cases modelled as beam engines, locomotives, windmills, even cargo ships and lighthouses. The cases feature wheels and other parts that can be moved but most are not true automatons.

As with the Cartier watches, the focus is the elaborate cases rather than on the movements.

Industrial clocks have a devoted following in Australia, with Christie's achieving prices ranging up to $13,800 in 1997 for examples from the collection of a local collector, Lew Whiteman.

Top of the tree at Lawson-Menzies is a French clock in the form of a James Watt steam engine. The clock strikes on a bell and is flanked by a barometer and a thermometer. The piece is 42cm high on a slate base. From about 1860, it is estimated to fetch $30,000 to $50,000.

Somewhat more affordable is a French windmill automaton clock, circa 1880, estimated at $3000 or upwards. Several other smaller examples carry estimates of less than $10,000.

My collection - Keith Soames

The Sydney northern districts realtor first got caught up in the intricacies of watches as a schoolboy, when he broke the watch his father bought him. Reluctantly mentioning it a few days later, he was astonished by the complexities revealed when his father took it apart and fixed it.

He's interested in "anything that ticks", but clocks with an extra dimension fascinate him. "I found that the clocks that [...] had some sort of device that provided a movement within the clock, or a chime [...] were much more interesting."

Nowadays he knows the quality of the movement in his first novelty clock was well below those from many English and French makers. "It's like anything else, when you start collecting and you're not sure ... you're more inclined to buy something attractive to the eye." And quality clocks do appreciate in value. "They are actually an investment."

Starter guide

$6000
French automaton clock in the form of a horizontal steam engine, the large boiler fitted with timepiece, barometer and thermometer, on slate and brass stand.

$12,000
Platinum-cased Cartier watch with silvered, engine-turned dial, probably from the 1940s, the case and suspension loop set with sapphires.

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