Inside the J.P. Morgan Family’s Horological Legacy
2 Video Views·Nov 7, 2025
Few names in American history carry the weight of J.P. Morgan — a titan of finance whose influence reached far beyond Wall Street. Both he and his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., were visionary collectors whose passion for watchmaking mirrored their power in banking.
Over a century later, two of their most significant timepieces return to the spotlight:
Lot 134: The first-ever Cartier Mystery Clock (Model A), built in 1912 and sold to J.P. Morgan, Jr. in 1913.
Lot 135: A Charles Frodsham split-seconds chronograph minute-repeating tourbillon pocket watch, commissioned by Morgan Jr. as a gift to a new partner at J.P. Morgan & Co.
These masterpieces resurface at Phillips’ Decade One (2015–2025) — a landmark Geneva auction celebrating ten years of Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, and a decade of record-breaking watch sales, discoveries, and scholarship.
When examining and admiring rare watches, I'm sometimes reminded of a famous line
in the play by Oscar Wilde, where I believe Lord Darlington asks,
What is a cynic?
A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
We all love a great contemporary sports watch, and we know the price of those items.
We can track them if the price moves up or down.
That's easy.
What's really difficult is to know the value of something
when it is as much about the beauty, the craftsmanship of these objects,
but also their amazing story.
Let me introduce you to two timekeepers that we have in our upcoming November 8th
and 9th Decade One auction.
Objects with absolutely mesmerizing 20th century history.
An English pocket watch, a French clock.
What have they got in common?
They have one incredible first owner in common,
and that is no one lesser than the scion of the J.P. Morgan dynasty, J.P. Morgan Jr.
His father was already one of the most passionate scholarly collectors the world has ever seen
of manuscripts, of art, and of course also watches and clocks.
His father had such a big collection, he could fill rooms at the Met
to whom he left a portion of his collection.
His son not only inherited the powerhouse J.P. Morgan the Bank,
but also the passion for beautiful objects.
And the Bank made it a habit to offer a new partner a watch.
The watch is in fact known as a J.P. Morgan Charles Fraction.
It is a massive open face, minute repeater, split second chronograph with register and tourbillon.
What a combination of complications you will ask yourself.
The watch is in so many ways as typical for an English high-end watch
as it could be for the early 20th century.
You've got the swivel bow.
You've got a superbly made case with substantial five joint hinges.
You will admire the Willis dial.
Not a plain snow white enamel dial.
No, it's got that warm ivory tone with a hue of,
I would even see some mint green in it at certain angles of the light.
The case I mentioned it opens like a vault.
And inside we have a presentation inscription which says
from J.P. Morgan to Elliot C. Bacon on the occasion of the joining of the Bank as a partner.
Already Mr. Bacon's father was a partner at J.P. Morgan
and he was one of the youngest ever to join the firm.
The Nicol Nielsen Ebauche is as good as anything that the world has seen in the early 20th century.
And the watch is literally close to perfect mint condition.
Even the original Charles Botram box has survived to this day.
So therefore the question is, what does this have in common with this?
And it is nothing but spectacular to share with you this Cartier Model A Mystery Clock.
We've heard so much in recent seasons thanks to an unprecedented group of
mystery clocks that Philips has offered around the globe in the last seasons,
that it all started in 1913 when Monsieur Couet and Monsieur Cartier decided
let's start making mystery clocks.
The first one was a Model A.
And the first Model A was sold to J.P. Morgan Jr.
We know that through literature, letters by Cartier to Mr. Morgan,
and through an auction catalogue decades ago
when this clock was sold from the estate of a descendant of J.P. Morgan.
And yes, you guessed it.
This is the J.P. Morgan Model A.
The first one delivered as a Christmas gift in 1913.
We've obtained from the Morgan Library a letter from Mr. Cartier to Mr. Morgan
written, I believe, on Saturday, the 20th of December 1913,
saying, hey Mr. Morgan, thank you again for being such a loyal client to Cartier.
The Christmas gifts that you've chosen will be delivered to you on Tuesday, the 23rd of December.
It's not your normal Model A.
It's got a nephrite base.
Most of the beautiful, undoubtedly spectacular Model As have black onyc bases.
And if you look at it with the lapis, the cabochons, the sapphires, the enamel, the diamonds,
it's in so many ways different from those to follow in the 20s, 30s, and even in the early 40s.
If one thinks today that Mystery Clock is a signature of Cartier's production of
desk time pieces, that's the one that started it all.
Just before World War I, this piece started a 100 plus year long history of Cartier
mastering the craft of making mystery clocks.
It's now back the second time in over a century at auction.
And if I come back to my original thought, we all know the price of certain things.
But if you ask me what the value of these is, I think they're priceless.
Because for history, for a beautiful story, for uniqueness, for emotion,
there cannot be a price tag.