Every once in a while, a watch appears that makes even seasoned collectors stop mid-scroll and think: wait… what is this?
That happened in May this year at Dorotheum; one of the oldest and biggest auction houses in the world, founded in 1707 by Emperor Joseph I. What looked at first like an interesting high-end pocket watch with an estimate of only €20.000–30.000 ended up absolutely destroying expectations.
Final hammer price: € 1.025 million.
Not only did it exceed estimates by an absurd margin, it also became the highest auction result ever achieved for a watch in Austrian auction history.
And honestly? Once you look closer, it starts making sense.
The watch was made by Thomas Engel, and his story is almost more fascinating than the watch itself.
Born in Germany in 1927, Engel became famous through polymer research and for being associated with the invention of the so-called quantum engine. But parallel to all of that scientific work, he developed an obsession for watchmaking. The cool fact for me is, that he is fully self-taught as a watchmaker.
Since around 1950 he studied the work of Abraham-Louis Breguet obsessively and eventually started building his own pocket watches. No formal watchmaking school. No traditional apprenticeship. Just passion, engineering obsession, and an almost unreasonable level of dedication.
Looking at Engel’s work today, it almost feels like looking at a predecessor to what François-Paul Journe later became famous for: independent thinking, technical purity, chronometric obsession, and creating watches that are extremely accurate.
This particular piece, built in 1979, is a huge flex in pocket watch form.
It features a one-minute tourbillon, a jump hour display, which if you paid close attention has been increasing absurdly in price over the past couple of years, a power reserve indicator, and just to show that he can do whatever he wants, Engel added a Thermometer.
The movement is hand-wound and beautifully decorated, it uses a Breguet hairspring and a constant-force mechanism, similar to a remontoir D’égalite, as Journe calls it. What is that though? It is a mechanism that ensures the balance hairspring always gets the same amount of power from the mainspring, ensuring insane horological accuracy. In easier terms, the watch looks cool at first glance, but if you’re a watch nerd, like me you can understand this pocket watch is next level.
The case is crafted from 750 gold, features a screw-down back under which lies a glass cover to see the movement, has official Swiss hallmarks, and is finely engraved. The front combines a silver guilloché regulator-style dial, arabic numerals, and a small seconds display.
The watch came in a full set with the original certificate, a handwritten note by Thomas Engel himself, the original wooden presentation box with a brass closure, a spare hand and mainspring.
For me, this was an insane discovery, and it absolutely surprised me something like that comes up at an auction in Austria so unexpectedly.
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