Surprisingly ‘watch diplomacy’ is as old mechanical artefacts are…some famous examples include the Breguet ‘king Farouk’, some beautiful sets of pocket watches made for the emperor of China, pre revolution of course. Other arteafcts include Faberge’s ‘eggs’ and jewelry that belonged to the Romanov family… All swiss and european gifts of course.

You can now buy the ‘king Farouk’ breguet model, but both faberge’s eggs and the Chinese emperor’s collections are in museums.