David Watkins (born 1940) is renowned as one of the most influential European artists in jewellery, and was from 1984 to 2006 Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery at the Royal College of Art, London.

He began his career in the 1960s as a sculptor, jazz pianist and special effects model maker. These influences feed into his jewellery, which is all about form, rhythm and colour. He has explored a wide range of materials, from paper to gold, encompassing industrial materials such as acrylic, steel, aluminium and titanium. For him machine technologies and hand skills can both bestow beauty, thus traditional craft and modern technologies coexist without loss to one another.

The delicate, geometric frame of the circle or wheel divided into twelve segments is a feature of all the pieces in the 'Wheel Pin' series, and evokes his ladder pins of the late 1970s. Watkins' customary minimalism is somewhat moderated in these pieces by the addition of decorative elements, abstracted forms from nature, which cross and soften the rigid precision of the underlying form.