Antique Art Deco Watches
Small mechanical watches of the 1920s to 1950s, built in the geometry of the Deco years: rectangular, square and tank-shaped cases made for the wrist just as the wrist was taking over from the pocket.
Antique Art Deco Watches
The heading covers hand-wound wristwatches and, in smaller number, pocket watches, dated by dealers between roughly 1920 and 1960. Of 390 dated listings on Sellingantiques, 253 sit in the 1930s, with the 1940s and 1920s some way behind. Titles are often more specific than the date field, giving c1928, 1937 or 1955.
The version you'll meet most often is a gents' or ladies' manual-wind wristwatch of the 1930s in a gold-filled, rolled-gold, plated or chrome case. 'Gents' appears in 147 titles against 101 for 'ladies', and 10k GF and 14k GF gents watches recur through the samples. Cases are frequently rectangular, square or tank-shaped, and case metal is stated in an unusual variety of ways: 9ct, 10k, 14k, 14ct, 18ct, platinum, silver, nickel, chrome, gold filled, rolled gold and RGP.
A second strand runs alongside it. Diamond-set ladies' cocktail watches, often in platinum, were made to be worn as evening jewellery, and 'cocktail' turns up in 64 titles with platinum and diamond in 54 each. Diamond weight is quoted openly, from 2ct upward.
Pocket watches account for around one in seven listings and rather more of current stock, appearing open faced, half hunter and full hunter, in silver, gold filled, 9ct and 18ct. Around 38 of the category comes to market a year across twenty different dealers, so the odd form surfaces: a lizard-skin sliding purse travel watch, a pocket watch and chain sold with a compass, niello inlay on two silver cases.
The Range
Case metal does most of the work. Platinum and 18ct gold sit at the upper end of the sampled range, while chrome, gold filled and rolled gold populate the lower and middle ground. Solid gold lifts a piece wherever it appears, including the plainer pocket watches that otherwise gather at the bottom.
Above metal, diamonds move the figure steeply, and because weight is stated in the title the climb is easy to follow: 2ct, 3.45ct, 4cts, 5cts, and a single bespoke platinum piece at 9.6cts, the largest weight in the archive and the top of the range. Form matters too. Jewelled cocktail watches occupy the top, unnamed 'Art Deco gents wrist watch' titles the bottom.
A named Swiss or American maker in the title carries weight, and platinum with a named maker sits high. So does the language of servicing: 'serviced' appears in 76 titles, 'newly serviced' in 31, and 36 describe the watch as never worn or unused period stock. Those terms are largely absent from the cheapest titles and common through the middle band.
Antique Art Deco Watches Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for art deco watches, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
One-offs from the archive: a lizard-skin sliding purse travel watch, and a pocket watch and chain that came with a compass.
The Antique Art Deco Watches Glossary
- Gold filled / GF
- A thick layer of gold bonded to a base-metal case, stated as 10k GF or 14k GF in 26 titles.
- Rolled gold / RGP
- The same idea by a different process, and the common British-market term for it. Fourteen titles use it.
- Tank
- A rectangular case with bars running down each side, named in 16 titles.
- Cocktail watch
- A small jewelled ladies' watch made to be worn as evening jewellery. Sixty-four titles use the term, many of them platinum and diamond set.
- Old stock / never worn
- Dealer shorthand for unworn period stock. Thirty-six titles carry 'never', 21 the phrase 'old stock', often paired with newly serviced.
- Half hunter / full hunter
- A pocket watch with a hinged cover over the dial, glazed with a small aperture in the half hunter. Open faced means no cover at all.
Antique Art Deco Watches: Frequently Asked Questions
What does Art Deco mean on a watch?
It names the design idiom of the 1920s and 1930s, and the geometry that came with it. Cases took rectangular, square, stepped and curved forms rather than the plain round.
The period also coincided with the wristwatch displacing the pocket watch for everyday wear, which is why wristwatches dominate the listings and pocket watches sit as a strong minority.
Are these watches wound by hand?
Largely, yes. Twenty-five titles say 'manual' outright, and the category as a whole is a manual-wind one.
Automatic movements surface only a handful of times, at the sparse edges, alongside the occasional aviator chronograph and enamel-decorated ladies' case.
How reliable are the dates on the listings?
The dealer date field runs 1900 to 1960 and behaves like a decade bucket rather than a precise year. The 1930s alone accounts for 253 of 390 dated listings.
Titles are often more exact, giving c1928, 1937 or 1955, and where a title year and the field disagree, the title is the more specific of the two.
Why do so many say never worn?
Thirty-six titles describe the watch as never worn or never used period stock, which is a high proportion for anything mechanical of this age.
The phrase is frequently paired with 'newly serviced'. Both terms cluster in the middle band of the sampled range and are largely absent from the cheapest titles.
What is a cocktail watch?
A small jewelled ladies' watch made to be worn as evening jewellery rather than as a timekeeper first. Sixty-four titles use the term, 24 of them as 'ladies cocktail'.
They are commonly platinum, set with diamonds, and the diamond weight is quoted openly: 2ct, 3ct, 3.45ct, 4cts, 5cts, and one bespoke platinum piece at 9.6cts.
Do pocket watches appear under this heading?
They do, in around one in seven listings and a larger share of what's currently for sale on Sellingantiques. Open faced, half hunter and full hunter forms all turn up.
Cases run through silver, gold filled, 9ct and 18ct, and chains appear with eleven of them. Niello, a black inlay in engraved silver, shows on just two cases across the whole run.