Elaborately designed luxury clocks that are often a cross between high jewelry and exquisite horological craftsmanship are in the spotlight once again, attracting the attention of collectors the world over. In April, at Watches and Wonders Geneva, luxury giants Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels presented their new range of sumptuously adorned automaton clocks. The latter's Apparition des Baies, for example, comes with a dome made of lacquered rose-gold leaves that open up every hour on the hour to reveal a white-gold, diamond and sapphire bird flapping its wings.

Patrons of Hong Kong auctions love an ornate timekeeper when they see one. In May, a rare Cartier La Pendule Magntique water clock was sold for a whopping HK$15 million ($1.92 million) at a Phillips auction, exceeding its pre-sale estimate seven times over. This museum-worthy piece is made from marble, silver, lapis lazuli, nephrite, coral, mother-of-pearl, enamel and jade, a gemstone indelibly linked to Chinese culture. The piece caused an animated 25-minute bidding war between collectors from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and the Middle East.

Another horological masterpiece by Cartier, a table clock set in a landscape carved out of a piece of jade, fetched HK$2.9 million. The scene is inspired by a Dong Bangda (1699-1769) painting. Dong was a painter in the court of Emperor Qianlong (1711-99).

The emperor had amassed a sizeable collection of mechanical clocks. Acquired mostly as gifts from European envoys sent to China, these clocks came to be seen as symbols of prestige and cultural exchange between imperial courts.