SJX Watches
Complicated Collectors: Lord Sandberg
This weekend’s results at Sotheby’s Hong Kong typify contemporary interest in independent watchmaking, and in special editions of series-produced watches. In contrast, the Sandberg Collection, assembled by former HSBC chairman Baron Michael Sandberg, paints a picture of another era of watch collecting, when elaborately decorated pocket watches and exotic automata ruled the auction room. The latest chapter in our Complicated Collectors series explores some of the most emblematic pieces of this extraordinary collection. Before it was dispersed at Antiquorum in 2001, the Sandberg Collection ranked among the most ambitious private assemblies of horological art formed in the latter half of the 20th century. Comprising over 400 timepieces, it reflected sustained engagement with both the mechanical and symbolic dimensions of watchmaking. Lord Sandberg, in his office in Hong Kong. Image – South China Morning Post The holdings spanned time and geography, from Geneva enamels and French musical complications to English automata and Islamic and Chinese adaptations, alongside early German and English forms, yet they build a coherent whole. Instead of building around a single school or brand, Sandberg assembled a collection participating in a larger conversation: between European and Oriental markets, between religious and secular symbolism, and between utility and ornament. Lord Sandberg’s long residence in Hong Kong likely shaped both his access and his perspective. Chinese...
