Antique Ladies Watches between £0 and £0
A small watch made for a woman's wrist, most often a mid-century Swiss cocktail watch in solid gold or platinum, worn for evening rather than for timekeeping.
What Are Antique Ladies Watches?
Half the titles on Sellingantiques use the word 'cocktail', which makes it the defining term of the category, more common than any maker's name. A cocktail watch is a tiny movement in a decorative case, where the metal and the stones carry the interest rather than the mechanics. Sizes are rarely quoted, and where they are, the cases are small.
The form you'll meet most is a solid gold wristwatch of the 1950s and 60s by a named Swiss house. The 1960s is the largest dated group, with the 1950s close behind. Gold appears in 223 titles and 'solid' in 148, split between 9ct and 18ct, with white gold running through 60 of them. Omega and Rolex are the names that recur most, Rolex often as Precision or Tudor, with Longines, Vertex and Jaeger-LeCoultre behind them.
Around a quarter of the category is Art Deco, dated to the 1920s and 30s. Platinum and diamond cases sit at the top of that group, while rolled gold, gold-filled and chrome cases fill the lower end. Diamond weights get quoted throughout, from a single carat up to a platinum Deco watch carrying 9.6 carats.
A smaller strand runs earlier: Victorian and Edwardian fob and pocket watches in silver and gold, some enamelled, some in half hunter or full hunter cases. The dated field starts at 1850 with an 18ct gold pocket watch. Integrated bracelet watches, mesh or diamond-set, are a small slice that turns up in both gold and platinum.
Where The Money Sits
Case metal does most of the sorting. Solid gold and platinum cluster in the upper part of the range, while rolled gold, gold-filled, gold-plated and chrome cases sit at the bottom. Weight and size push the same way: descriptions like heavy solid 18ct or large solid 18ct appear only among the higher-priced watches.
Stones are the second lever. Diamonds appear in over a hundred titles, and the watches climb steadily as the quoted carat weight rises through two, three, four and five carats. A stated weight matters as much as the stones themselves, since it tells a buyer what they're buying before the photographs do.
A named Swiss house lifts a watch above an anonymous one. Unattributed 'Art Deco ladies wrist watch' listings sit lower than anything carrying Omega, Rolex, Longines or Jaeger-LeCoultre on the dial. Original box and paperwork add again, and live stock carries a box far more often than the archive does.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for ladies watches between £0 and £0, 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.
The top sale of the last year on Sellingantiques was an 18ct gold Rolex ladies' cocktail watch with a diamond bezel, manual wind, sold in January 2026.
The Antique Ladies Watches between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Cocktail watch
- A small dress watch worn for evening, where the case and stones matter more than the movement. It appears in half the titles in this category.
- Solid gold
- A case that is gold throughout, as against rolled gold, gold-filled or gold-plated. Dealers use the word 'solid' in 148 titles precisely because it separates the two.
- 9ct and 18ct
- UK gold fineness marks, 9ct in 103 titles and 18ct in 79. Dealers describing non-UK cases write 14k, 15K or 18k instead.
- Hallmarked
- Struck with UK assay marks. Chester and London are the only two offices named in these titles, and Chester turns up on watches marked as late as 1952.
- Backwinder
- A case wound from the back rather than the side, seen on a few Omega and Jaeger-LeCoultre cocktail watches.
- Half hunter and full hunter
- A hinged cover over the dial, glazed with a small aperture on the half hunter, solid on the full. Both forms appear among the older fob and pocket watches.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cocktail watch?
A small dress watch made to be worn in the evening, with a tiny movement set into a decorative gold or platinum case. The value sits in the metal and the stones rather than the mechanics.
The form was standard women's wear from the 1930s through to the 1960s. On Sellingantiques the word appears in half of all titles, which makes it the single most common term in the category.
Which makers turn up most often?
Omega leads on title count, with Rolex next, split between Rolex Precision and Rolex Tudor. Longines, Vertex and Jaeger-LeCoultre follow.
These names come from dealer titles rather than from any firm-level attribution, so they describe how the watches are offered. Plenty of listings carry no maker at all and are described simply as Art Deco ladies' wristwatches.
Are these watches hand wound or automatic?
Hand winding is the norm. 'Manual' or 'manual wind' appears in sixteen titles, and it's the default assumption for a small cocktail case.
Automatics are a bare handful, among them an IWC of 1963 and an Omega Ladymatic.
How old are most ladies watches for sale?
The dated field runs from 1850 to the late 1960s, and it's firmly mid-century. The 1960s is the largest group with 144 listings, then the 1930s with 77 and the 1950s with 76.
Everything else forms a long tail: the 1920s, 1900s, 1940s, 1890s and 1910s in descending order. A few dealers give only 'Victorian' or '19th Century', which is a period claim rather than a date.
Many titles carry a circa year of their own, c1964 and c1966 being the commonest, and that figure can be more precise than the decade bucket.
Why does platinum matter in this category?
Platinum is the metal of the diamond-set top end, appearing in 67 titles and usually paired with a quoted carat weight.
Platinum-and-diamond Art Deco cases from around 1930 and 1950 account for most of the highest-priced watches recorded on Sellingantiques, including one carrying 9.6 carats of diamonds.
Do fob and pocket watches appear here too?
Yes, though under one in ten. They're Victorian and Edwardian, in silver or gold, some with enamel work, and they include half hunter and full hunter cases.
They sit at the lower end of the range. One unusual piece is a convertible fob-to-wristwatch with a 2.2 carat diamond bezel.