A gold-and-silver pocket watch once owned by King Farouk is on show in Alexandria
A French-made pocket watch with two silver figures and a royal crown is among the rarest pieces at Alexandria's Royal Jewelry Museum.
Some watches do far more than tell the time. This one shows off royal taste.
Alexandria's Royal Jewelry Museum is spotlighting a gold and silver pocket watch that belonged to King Farouk. It carries the name of Charles Oudin, one of France's oldest and best-known watchmakers. The dial uses Latin numerals, with English numbers from 5 to 60 above them.
The clasp is shaped like a shield with an oval ornament in the centre. On each side sits a silver half-figure of a woman, and each holds one end of a royal crown and one end of a gold-and-silver necklace. Two facing eagles sit under the crown, and a woman's face with a crescent on her head sits between the figures. The crown appears on both the front and the back of the watch.
The piece is part of the museum's "Featured Piece" series. The museum opened in 1986 in a palace in Zizinia, Alexandria, and now has 13 galleries and roughly 1,000 items from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, Egypt's former royal family.
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King Farouk's pocket watch at Royal Jewelry Museum · 2 updates
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