The Life and Times of Tiffany & Co.

 An exhibition of rare Tiffany & Co. timepieces in Melbourne.

The Tiffany & Co. flagship store in Melbourne is currently hosting an archival exhibition of the company’s timepieces. The Making of the New York Minute, which runs until July 14, traces the company’s history and innovations from 1837 right up to the present. It includes incredible pieces such as President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Tiffany watch, given to him by his son-in-law in 1945 and inscribed, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with loyalty, respect and affection,” and a lady’s watch from the 1930s encrusted with baguette diamonds.

SEE ALSO: What's in a New York Minute

Tiffany & Co. began selling watches in 1847, a decade after its founding as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium”. And while that distinctive blue packaging will always be associated with diamonds, and Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue Manhattan flagship store to Audrey-Hepburn-as-Holly Golightly, the company really owes its greatness to time – more specifically the Tiffany Timer pocket watch that was perfected at its Place Cornavin, Geneva, factory in 1874.

By the 1880s, Tiffany & Co. had become a premier watch- and clock-maker. Loyal customers in New York were treated to weekly regulation of their clocks by Tiffany engineers, following the adoption of standard time in 1883. (Founder Charles Lewis Tiffany coined the term New York Minute to define the fast pace of the city.)

The exhibition is on at Tiffany’s Collins Street store.