Details
CIRCA: 1967
CASE MATERIAL: Yellow gold, case back with commemorative medallion depicting Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and Queen Farah Pahlavi
CASE DIAMETER: 31 mm.
DIAL: Gilt
MOVEMENT: Manual
FUNCTIONS: Time only
BOX: No
PAPERS: No
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Lot Essay

The present Vacheron Constantin coin watch combines an important Imperial Iranian commission with remarkable diplomatic provenance. It was presented to Laura Louise Barkley MacArthur, wife of Douglas MacArthur II, who served as United States Ambassador to Iran from 1969 to 1972, and daughter of former U.S. Vice President Alben W. Barkley.

During MacArthur’s tenure as Ambassador, he and his wife were regularly invited to official receptions and dinners hosted by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran. According to the family, at one such dinner the Shah arranged a surprise for his female guests, concealing a small pocket watch beneath each lady’s napkin. It was on this occasion that Laura MacArthur received the present timepiece, which has remained within the family ever since.

The watch itself formed part of a special commission ordered by the Ministry of the Imperial Court of Iran to commemorate the Shah’s White Revolution, the programme of political, economic and social reforms launched in 1963. Its caseback is fitted with a commemorative medallion bearing relief portraits of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and Queen Farah Pahlavi, accompanied by Persian inscriptions and a date corresponding to October–November 1967.

The provenance is particularly evocative of a turbulent period in Iranian-American relations. In 1970, while serving as Ambassador in Tehran, Douglas MacArthur II escaped an attempted kidnapping by opposition guerrillas; several of those involved were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Against this historical backdrop, the present watch provides a tangible link between the Imperial Court of Iran and one of the senior American diplomatic families of the period.

Preserved by direct descent from the original owner, the present Vacheron Constantin represents a rare surviving example of an Imperial Iranian state commission, further distinguished by its exceptional connection to the MacArthur family and the court of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

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