One of the Isle of Man’s best known residents is calling time on his clock collection.

Inventor and philanthropist Dr John Taylor is selling some of the world heritage quality English clocks he’s been garnering for the past 50 years.

Dr Taylor founded the Strix kettle controls business and has over 400 patents to his name.

He is also in the process of building a new eco-friendly home in the Isle of Man, having designed the distinctive elliptical house on the vast 280-acre estate of Arragon Mooar in Santon.

The son of acclaimed inventor, Eric H Taylor, John witnessed his father fixing broken timepieces at the family kitchen table.

This ignited his passion for clocks and in the 1970s he purchased his first longcase clock in Kensington, London, made in 1710 by another John Taylor, of Ormskirk in Lancashire.

Fifty years after starting his clock collection, Dr Taylor is now selling the first tranche of 46 clocks at London antiques galleries.

Prices range from £3,000 for a rare Henry Sutton surveying compass to £3.5million for a clock commissioned by Prince George of Denmark for presentation by his wife, Queen Anne, to Archduke Charles von Habsburg in the 18th century.

The timepieces include the best of the golden age of clockmaking. Dr Taylor said he had decided it was time to reduce the size of his clock collection, so that others could enjoy these timepieces.