GENEVA — A rare historical pocket watch made for an Ethiopian emperor Menelik II has sold to an unknown buyer for £30,000 at an auction in Geneva, Switzerland.
The historically important clock — which is known as ‘The Negus Watch’ and is made from 18K yellow gold — was a gift from Emperor Menelik II to Léon Chefneux in recognition of his contribution to building Ethiopia’s first railway line.
It is thought the watch was probably presented as a welcome gift before the commercial agreement was signed between the emperor and the railway designer.
The watch stands for progress, innovation and modernity and has remained in the same family for over 100 years.
It has a white enamel dial and is paved with rubies and diamonds.
This was the first time it had appeared at auction and it was sold with its presentation case and the original First Class Geneva Observatory Certificate.
3 thoughts on “Ethiopian emperor’s watch sold to unknown buyer in Geneva”
Next time it will be Lucy’s turn to appear on auction. Currently we are unable to protect our historical sites in the country and develop our tourism. It is true that we have a lot of both natural, man made, and historical tourist attraction sites better than the neighboring country Kenya. But our annual income from tourism is much lesser than Kenya. General we are not properly exploiting our tourist potential.
Had it been possible to buy this historical “The Negus Watch” it could have been one of the historical tourist attractions for the next generations. But we are not thinking and working for our children and grand children. We are destroying our country. We should not always blame the Woyane group. As a citizen every one of us are responsible to protect our country if we believe that we are Ethiopians. Probable the current leaders may not be true Ethiopians. Do we have any guarantee to protect Lucy?
Folks, to begin with this was a watch given to railway designer by emperor Menelik II. So it belongs to the descendents of the designer. They can do whatever they want to do with their belongings. If you care about it being historic to Ethiopians (as I do) then pitch in some money and buy it. Otherwise, don’t cry about decedents of the owner selling their inherited item. Such unpractical thinking has become a trademark of most of our people. Instead of objective thinking and principle-centered decision-making, we stick to egocentric and ethnocentrism mentality which are recipes for ignorance.
Observer, how do you know it was given to the designer? is he still alive in order to sale the watch? does he read ghez? did him self sold the watch? where was the watch all this time? in whos hand was the watch before it went for auction? what is the name of the first saler? what was the reason the saler sold the watch after all this time? all this quitions has to be answered and the watch should return to Ethiopian. As we have being trying to tell you all this time, the watch was in the royal family house. their servant stole it with ather jewlery. this man is no defrent from t. Gelata. the tenquie. this one calls him self General he has never being in the militery in his life. he has cheated and hurt so many people you wouldnt believ it. he is a canartist he should be investigated and put to jail before he hurt any more people and he is in Ethioia now.