Enamel & Rock Crystal Pendant Watch, ca. 1910

Appraised on: August 1, 2009

Appraised in: Phoenix, Arizona

Appraised by: Kevin Zavian

Category: Clocks & Watches

Episode Info: Phoenix, Hour 3 (#1415)

Originally Aired: May 3, 2010

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:03)

GUEST: This was in the family, and they were among the affluential New England families. On my great-grandmother's side, they're from the steel manufacturing and mining, and on my great-grandfather's side, a great-great-uncle developed the steam engine.

APPRAISER: That's great stuff. The chain is all made out of platinum wire with natural pearls, natural meaning man did not help them. Pearls that you see every day are usually cultured.

GUEST: Wow, I didn't realize they were pearls.

APPRAISER: And then it's accented with these little rose diamond panels. It's a beautiful, exquisite chain from the Edwardian period, around 1910, 1915. A chain like that could have been used to hang reading glasses. So, it could be used for other things. It drops down to a beautiful rose-cut diamond bail...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And then we have this beautiful piece of enamel here. A lot of people look at this and they think it's glass. What it is, in fact, is carved rock crystal. Most likely this would have been carved back then in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Then we move in and there's a little bezel of rose diamonds. And then we come to the enamel. This is French enamel, and what's really neat is, when we flip it over... because it's a lady's pendant watch.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: These two pearls-- this one here and this one over here-- are natural pearls. This one is also the stem to set and to wind the watch.

GUEST: I wondered about that, but I haven't had the courage to mess with it. (laughing)

APPRAISER: You didn't try it yet.

GUEST: Haven't tried it.

They repeat the classical enamel theme in the rose diamonds, but you can see just so tastefully placed a little watch right at the bottom. And the watch inside is made in Switzerland. If you had to go buy this in a retail environment, I'm very confident in saying this would probably be priced around $25,000.

GUEST: Wow. Wow, that's amazing. That's awesome, that's great.