The history of Duckworth Prestex stems back to 1869 when brand founder Neil Duckworth’s family firm, Prestons, was started in Bolton, England. Prestons was making pocket watches under the Prestex name during the 1920s, and later expanded to dress watches and chronographs.
By 1948, the family business had expanded to selling Swiss watches such as Heuer, Rolex, and Omega while the Prestex brand was discontinued. While Duckworth’s brother took over the business in 1982, Neil helped with launching TAG Heuer in the UK where he served as the UK managing director until 2001. The company website even includes a photo of Duckworth with four-time Formula One champion Alain Prost.
Duckworth founded Duckworth Prestex in 2021, achieving a long time dream of reviving the Prestex name.
McLaren F1
Employees of the McLaren Racing Formula 1 team were gifted Duckworth Prestex McLaren (ref. M0925-05) timepieces in early 2023, to commemorate the British team finishing third in the Formula One constructors’ standings in 2020.
In a brief email correspondence with us, Mr. Duckworth confirmed that the McLaren piece was a private commission from the team, and has never been advertised or available for sale. He noted that extra pieces were made as a precaution, and go on display at shows such as Minutes+Hours 2025 in Chicago where we first saw one.
Related Pages
References
https://duckworthprestex.com/pages/our-history
https://duckworthprestex.com/pages/about-us
https://www.watchgecko.com/blogs/magazine/introducing-duckworth-prestex
https://watchcollecting.com/for-sale/2023-duckworth-prestex-mclaren