Lucie Sautrey Watch

The Sautrey Watch (French: l'Oignon Sautrey) is the lost pocketwatch of Lucie Vanwall (née Sautrey), wife of Anthony Vanwall.

The Sautrey Watch is the object of much history and fame in Valoria. Lucie Vanwall originally gifted John Cooper, the incoming prime minister, her golden pocketwatch at his swearing-in ceremony on September 26th, 1762. Six years later, when Cooper left office, he gifted the pockewatch to his own successor, Phillip Edwards, thus beginning the tradition of the outgoing prime minister passing on the pocketwatch to his successor.

The Sautrey Watch came to symbolize the continuity of the prime ministership and Valoria, as well as the peaceful transfer of power—many consider the tradition to have been truly solidified in 1774, when incumbent PM Colinn Clark gave the watch to John Sparrow, despite having been defeated in a bitterly contested election. It's prestige also came from its connection to the founding father of Valoria and his family.

When Michael Augustine proclaimed the monarchy, he sought to remove cultural icons and reminders of Valorian democracy, and so the Sautrey Watch disappeared from public view. After Nicholas reinstituted democracy in Valoria and elections were held in 1976, the king gifted Nathan Crawford the Sautrey Watch in a symbolic representation of Valorian democracy's continuity and perseverance. In 1982, King Henry revealed that the watch gifted to Crawford six years earlier was not actually the original, as the original had been lost sometime during the regime of Michael I or Michael II. Then-PM Matthew Anderson did not give up the watch, however, instead gifting it to Samuel Scott when he succeeded him in 1986, as a representation of the "rebirth of Valorian democracy."

The second watch has since then been passed down to every prime minister, currently under the stewardship of Valerie Minerva. While the prime minister often wears a pocketwatch as part of the office's traditional uniform, the real Sautrey Watch is typically worn for important occasions, including on September 26th or for the prime minister's Christmas Address. Because of the Sautrey Watch tradition, the right to wear a pocketwatch is typically reserved for the prime minister alone.