He was married to Carol Lee Natelson Newsom (1946-2003) who as a professional photojournalist covered international tennis and was active in promoting women’s tennis during the early days of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. The watch was illustrated and described in George Daniels’ authoritative book The Art of Breguet.ĭavid reportedly was one of the country’s first dot-com millionaires, having sold his data-management company in the early 1980s and then continuing for many years to consult with the corporate buyer. The company confirmed on a framed certificate that the watch was sold in 1825 to Lord Henry William Paget. The sale’s highest lot, at $175,000, was a Breguet astronomical quarter-repeating watch, No. As Robert Cheney, director of the Willard House recalls, David’s typical reply to a funding suggestion was “anything you need,” not “send me a detailed proposal or contract to consider.” To both the IMH and Willard House, he also regularly provided substantial financial assistance when urgent projects needed funding. His generosity was spontaneous and unselfish as he often responded without hesitation when his assistance was requested. He also gave three watches by Luther Goddard (1762-1842), the first American watch manufacturer, and a 1970 ultra-high precision pendulum clock by Fedchenko.Īs an active board member of the Willard House and Clock Museum in Grafton, Mass., he donated an extremely rare astronomical regulator by Simon Willard Jr, along with an Aaron Willard Jr shelf clock. Howard & Company banjo clocks, which now line a wall of that world-class museum. Among those donations was a complete set of the five sizes of E. Those horological treasures are a clear window into his collecting passion, and they represent the parts of his collection that he had not yet donated, as he probably would have done if his lifespan had not been cut short.ĭavid donated or provided acquisition funds for more than 50 important horological objects at the International Museum of Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, after befriending its then-director, Ludwig Oechslin. The Newsom collection garnered just over $1 million.
Tragically he died on February 29, 2020, probably one of the first Massachusetts Covid victims.Īt a live auction on October 22, Skinner offered 107 lots from his estate in a dedicated sale, and many more lots, not attributed to him, in an online sale that concluded two days previously. A private person with no interest in public recognition, he nonetheless was a hugely generous donor and a serious collector of important watches and clocks. – David Newsom would not have wanted this article written. Review by Robert Frishman, Photos Courtesy Skinner Inc This extremely rare high-precision timepiece descended directly in the maker’s family, and we see it here with a rightfully smiling Newsom. An outstanding example of David Newsom’s frequent generosity was his donation of a Simon Willard Jr (1795-1874) astronomical regulator to the Willard House & Clock Museum in Grafton, Mass.