Roy King Solid Silver unisex designer dress watch c.1977 wit...

Hammer

£340

Roy King Solid Silver unisex designer dress watch c.1977 with an unusual heavy solid sterling silver case and buckle. The case is constructed from a solid ingot of silver and alone weighs approx 25g, hallmarked Sterling silver and dated 1977. The case is in excellent condition, no significant dents, original signed crown. The dial is gloss black, no marks with only Roy King logo. The movement is a Swiss made calibre manually wound. The watch is presented on a Condor black aligator leather strap with original solid silver .925 buckle fitted. Very interesting watch with a fascinating history (see below).

ROY KING, was a leading British watch designer and jeweller, with customers ranging from Saudi princes to The Beatles and Tom Jones. King began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice goldsmith and diamond mounter in Hatton Garden. By 21 he was foreman of a workshop, creating one-off pieces which readily found buyers (including members of the Royal Family) through Bond Street jewellers. Much of his work in the 1930s was also as an uncredited manufacturer for names such as Rolex, Cartier, Asprey and Garrard. After the war, King began to design and make watches under his own name. When restrictions on the import of Swiss watch movements were lifted in 1960, King decided to integrate these into his own designs, recognising that, whoever the manufacturer might be, people still wanted "Swiss Made" moving parts.

He signed an exclusive agency agreement with Bueche-Girod, the Swiss movement makers, which left him free to design the exterior of the pieces as he wished. He also began to make watches with straps made wholly from gold, then a novel idea.

In 1961, the Roy King workshop swept the board at the British Modern Jewellery Exhibition, winning two first prizes, as well as one second and one third prize. The winning pieces are now in the permanent collection of Goldsmiths' Hall.

During the 1960s, the workshop produced many designs using a variety of unconventional methods. Molten gold would be poured through tea strainers before being stretched into shapes to satisfy the most avant garde tastes. King's "bark finish" design for bracelets sparked a craze: when George Harrison married Patti Boyd in 1966, she wore one of King's bark finish wedding bands.