The exhibition Watches: From Timekeepers to Trendsetters, brought together over 50 antique watches specially loaned from private and museum collections and highlighted the technological and artistic qualities of antique watches. The exhibition considered their variations and functions, and took an in-depth look at particularly important watches belonging to notable personalities. This show not only delved deep into these marvellous little machines to see how they work, but also demonstrated their aesthetic qualities and how they were indispensable items of costume, merging beauty and function into a wearable objet d'art. The exhibition was guest-curated by David Thompson, who occupied the role of senior curator of Horology at the British Museum until his recent retirement.