Auction coming up.... Bonhams 9th of June

Another auction coming up. Bonhams in London. Looking nice. Some great watches. And i love the ones with a story. Like the 6034 from Norman Buckley. Here is the story from Bonhams (quote):

Norman Buckley was born in Manchester in 1908. From an impoverished background, (his father sold matches on a street corner to pay for Grammar school education) Norman went on to hold 6 world water speed records from 1956 until 1972.

He was a successful solicitor based in Manchester and eventually moved to the Lake District and established a Hotel chain still in existence today. He was also a keen and very talented motor sport competitor beginning with Motorcycles racing on Southport beach and graduating to cars most notably his beloved Fraser Nash. He owned an amazing array of cars 41/2 Litre Bentley, Jaguar XK120, Jaguar XK150s, Jaguar E type (fitted with C type ex Jaguar race engine), AC Cobra, Lotus Elan, Mini Cooper S, Jensen FF, Ferrari Dino, Ferrari Daytona to name just a few.

He began Hydroplane racing in the early 1950's on Lake Windermere and was a close personal friend of Donald Campbell. He was in fact the official timekeeper for Donald's fatal attempt on the water speed record in 1967 and Tonia Bern-Campbell stayed with the Buckleys while salvage workers recovered what they could from the wreckage. Norman's first World Water speed record was for the 1 hour unlimited record in 1956 in Miss Windermere III with an average speed of 79.66 mph. The hydroplane was built to his own design and powered by a 3.8ltr Jaguar engine. He was aided throughout by his highly skilled mechanic Arthur Henderson.

Norman went on to break a further five records including the flying kilometre at 120.63mph during the 1960's in Miss Windermere IV. His last boat Miss Windermere V was powered by a 6.5L ex Maserati racing engine developing some 580 bhp.

Norman Hughes Buckley was awarded the MBE in 1972 in recognition of his record breaking services and died prematurely in 1974. Miss Windermere IV remains on display in the Steamboat Museum at Lake Windermere.

This current watch was purchased by Norman Buckley in 1960 and was only really worn by him during his water speed record attempts, and therefore shows very little signs of wear. It still retains its original finish to the polished case and in our opinion has one of the finest condition dials to appear on the market in recent years. The printing and colour is as crisp and bright as the day of manufacture and shows no signs of discoloration. Furthermore highlighted with a fantastic provenance make this a very rare and desirable example.

But also these watches are coming up:

The Comex 16800 looks like a nice package with some nice goodies. Like blank diving certificates, rare photographs of the current owner diving and other related material. It's a 10 years os service gift to the diver. Who joined Comex in the early 1970's and dived around the world working his way up to Diving Supervisor. This watch was presented by Comex to him for 10 years service and comes with personal log books, diver's identity cards, plus rare photographs of the current owner diving around the world.

Also a 5513 Milsub. Issued 1975. And some more nice watches. I like the Omega Speedmaster also.

Paul Maudsley did put together another nice auction. With some first owner watches again. Which for me get's more and more important.