Pocket Watches · Watch
Watch made by Akteo/ Canal Productions, to promote David Bowie's show in Paris on the Hours Tour , 1999
- Maker / attribution
- Rex Ray (designer); Studio Canal (maker); Akteo (maker)
- Date
- 1999
- Historical period
- Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- France
- Object type
- Watch
- Materials / technique
- Cast metal and glass watch face, printed and engraved with designs. Stamped rubber watchs trap.
- Dimensions
- Length: 25.3 cm; Diameter: 3 cm; Width: 1.8 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- LOAN:AMERICASFOUNDATION.1352-2024
- Credit line
- Lent by the V&A Americas Foundation through the generosity of Jones/Tintoretto Entertainment Company LLC
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number LOAN:AMERICASFOUNDATION.1352-2024), this is a watch by Rex Ray, made in France, dated 1999. The Atlas places it in the Mechanical Renaissance period (1990 – 2010) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Cast metal and glass watch face, printed and engraved with designs. Stamped rubber watchs trap. Recorded dimensions: Length: 25.3 cm; Diameter: 3 cm; Width: 1.8 cm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
V&A — Physical description
A round, silver wristwatch with a design related to David Bowie's album Hours , with a black rubber wrist strap with buckle. The watch face has no numbers, and is predominately silver with silver hours and minutes hands and an orange seconds hand. It is printed with various text and illustrations, including barcode-like designs, and the 'DB' logo. The glass front over the watch face has further white text printed on it. There is engraved text on the side and back of the watch face. The black rubber strap is smooth on top and textured on the reverse. It has a stamped logo on to top, and further stamped text on the reverse.
Inscriptions & marks
DAVID BOWIE 'HOURS...' AKTEO; A AKTEO; ; . W I M; DESIGN J-C MARESCHAL MADE IN FRANCE
Historical context
Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
Mechanical watches return as cultural objects; independent watchmaking flourishes.
Collectors' interest in antique pocket watches grew, and a few houses made new pocket watches with grand complications as technical showpieces.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Quartz Revolution
Atlas type guide
Pocket watches
The pocket watch was the dominant personal timekeeper from the late seventeenth century until the First World War. Its development tracks the history of the escapement: verge watches with fusees until the late eighteenth century; Thomas Mudge's lever escapement (c. 1755) and the cylinder escapement popularised by George Graham and later by Swiss makers; and the Swiss and English lever watches of the nineteenth century. Lépine's bar-bridge calibre and keyless winding made watches thinner and easier to use.
Industrialisation transformed the trade: American factories such as Waltham (from 1850) and Elgin produced interchangeable parts by machine, and Swiss makers responded with their own mechanisation after the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. By 1900 a reliable watch was affordable to millions; the finest makers continued to produce complications and precision watches.
What to look for
- The escapement: verge (crown wheel), cylinder, duplex, English or Swiss lever.
- Key winding (a square arbor in dial or back) or keyless crown winding.
- Signatures and serial numbers on the movement, dial and inside case back.
- Hallmarks, case maker's marks and gold or silver standards stamped in the case.
- Dial material: enamel, silver, gold, later printed metal.
Dating clues
- Verge watches dominate before c. 1800; cylinder watches c. 1770–1900; lever watches after c. 1820.
- Keyless winding: increasingly common after c. 1860.
- Manufacturer serial number lists exist for Waltham, Elgin, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe and others.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Verge escapementDetached lever escapementFuseeIdentification Centre
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