And finally…Scots watch takes £1m at auction

The timepiece, a Royal oval astronomical watch with an engraved portrait of King James VI and I, had a pre-sale estimate of up to £250,000 but went on to sell for £989,000 at Sotheby’s in London.

It was designed in around 1618 by David Ramsay, who was the first master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and also served as Chief Clockmaker to the king.

It is one of two watches thought to have been made by Ramsay by order of the king.

Ramsay was born in Scotland in about1585 and went to work in France, arriving in England in about 1610 at the request of King James.

The second watch is on permanent loan in the V&A Museum in London.

It was part of a wider sale of pieces from a private collection of pocket watches which fetched a total of £3 million.

Tim Bourne, Sotheby’s worldwide head of watches, and Daryn Schnipper, chairman of Sotheby’s watch division, said: “It is incredible to think that these immaculately preserved timepieces survived 400 years of tumultuous British history.”