WATCH COLLECTING

Evening Star, Issue 22351, 29 May 1936, Page 11

WATCH COLLECTING

CLOCKS WORTH HUNDREDS There is no need to take the advice of the lines in the old music hall ditty when Mr H White Wickham, of England, is about. He carries, half a dozen in his pockets, rated to the hundredth part of a second on Greenwich time. It is one of his hobbies. For 20 years Mr White W’ickliam, the wellknown deep sea fisherman, who is visiting Auckland, has collected timepieces until ho has about him a collection of watches, clocks, and chronometers of all shapes, sizes, and types worth thousands of pounds (says the 1 Star’). One that he prizes dearly is the pocket watch of Count Tolstoi, the famous Russian author. It was made by Patek Philippe and Co., of Geneva, in 1885. Of solid gold, with the Tolstoi crest enamelled on the back of the case in delicate hues, marvellously executed, the watch originally cost about £4O. Its value to-day would be about £7OO, but the present owner is doubtful whether he would get even that much for it. Mr White Wickham bought it from an antique dealer in London for £45. An antique collector of all kinds, from watches to furniture, Mr White Wickham is well known to the dealers of England and the Continent, and when thev find themselves in possession of a choice piece they communicate with him. A cumbersome thing, but an excellent timepiece, is an eight-day pocket chronometer with a ease of 18-carat gold. Made by Charles Frodsham, of London, the chronometer was ordered by a wealthy Bradford merchant, who paid £3OO for it. Years later the merchant fell on bad times. He sold it. Mr White Wickham bought it from a dealer for £BO. “ BEST IN THE WORLD.” Regarded by the National Physical Laboratory at Kew, after a test, as the finest watch in the world and the finest over made, another timepiece in Mr Wickham’s possession cost him £75. The initials of the original owner have been delicately carved on the front, with the owner’s crest on the back. After the usual exhaustive sis weeks trial the watch was awarded at Kew 94.9 marks out of a possible 100. It is a pocket chronometer with lour billon escapement, fitted with lever balance. The maker was M. Paul Ditisheim, of La Chnux de Fonds, Switzerland. The watch maintained time within the twentieth of a second per day of the finest marine chronometer ever tested at Greenwich, and a marine chronometer is tested in only one position. Its mean variation of daily rate was only one-eighteenth of a second, and the error that might be expected of it was 2.7 sec per month. The watch lost during a voyage to Australia and back, occupying five exactly Believed by Mr White Wickham to have been stolen, the chronometer of U-boat 100 was bought by the collector from a London antique dealer for £25. It originally cost £75. Another in his possession is a beautiful little French watch of solid platinum, which cost £l2O to make. He found it among the treasure's in a Repent street jeweller’s shop. It cost him £45. A big expeditionary watch in a solid silver case, watertight oven to the extent of having a cap over the winder movement, was bought by the collector for £45. It has luminous figures, and its owner claims that you could swim

a river with it in your pocket without A careful record in sn ec ia 11 y printed books is kept by Mr White Wickham, of the eight best watches he owns. They are all checked on Greenwich time every day, and rated to the hundredth part of a second. They vary only two or three seconds a allowed to work that long without a check. Mr White Wiskham mentioned that the balance wheel of the average watch travels 15 1-3 miles every 24 hours, so that in a year it would trave 6,596 miles. One-tenth of a drop of oil is all that is needed in a year for the balance wheel. vc “ Every clock in Auckland has a different time.” remarked Mr White Wickham. “ Time signals should he given out every day, as in London and most other cities. If IYA had a decent chronometer the station could put out the pips ’ at a given time every day, and there would then he less variation in the times of the city s 0l In'all, Mr White Wickham lias about 80 watches, clocks, and chronometers, worth thousands of pounds. He fits a special watch to his rod when big game fishing, so that he knows the exact length of time it takes him to play and land a fish. Before he left London he bought a modern clip-on watch, which he wears in the lapel of his coat It cost him £l4 at a London jeweller’s shop, but since he has had it it has lost eight minutes a day. He is taking it back to have new works put in. When Mr White Wickham travels he carries his most valuable watches in his pockets, so that they will not be jolted. When he leaves on the Rangitane for England he will hand over to the third officer his treasured chronometers. They will be kept on the bridge, and on the way Home the owner will spend half an hour every day chocking his timepieces with Greenwich. He always has plenty of time.