AN EARLY 20TH CENTURY DIAMOND-SET COIN WATCH, BY CARTIER

This watch is an unusual example, not only because of its small size; larger five pound coins were customarily used, but also because it depicts the heads of two monarchs, being composed of two halves of two different sovereign coins, rather than just one. With both Queen Victoria and King Edward VII depicted it may be reasonably supposed that this watch was issued to mark the accession of Edward VII to the throne in 1902, marking the transition of Victorian Britain to the Edwardian era and new 20th Century.