Green’s Dictionary of Slang

used in phrs. to imply intensity, excess, speed e.g. my heart was racing like a two-bob watch or as a usu. neg. comparative, ....as a two-bob watch, ....like a two-bob watch.

1929		Kapunda Herald (SA) 1 Feb. 4/4: After leaving the border gate, the road runs in a straight line for many miles [...] and with the track (mostly dirt) in good order and the car running ‘like a two-bob watch’ (that is how our driver described it, but to me if a two-bob watch ran as smoothly as our car was at that time it would be worth considerably more than a florin).
1936		Chronicle (Adelaide) 10 Dec. 65/3: The man obviously had no confederates, for the onlooker who responded to this invitation was a local grazier of unimpeachable integrity, who [...] handed over an object that was even funner [sic] than the proverbial two-bob watch, but nevertheless ticked .
1937		News (Adelaide) 28 Dec. 1/2: [T]he chances are fifty-fifty they haven’t been extravagant in their use of water, but that their meters are about as reliable as two-bob watches .
1940		Truth (Brisbane) 7 Jan. 7/3: Outside of some of the bowling and most of the batting the most erratic thing on the ground was the scoreboard. It was about as accurate as a ‘two-bob’ watch.
1941		Truth (Brisbane) 12 Jan. 7/2: The team is as ill-balanced as a two bob watch.
1941		Truth (Sydney) 23 Nov. 35/3: It was ‘as useless as a two-bob watch’ trying to pick out people at Prince’s last Thursday night.
1943		Mail (Adelaide) 11 Sept. 9/5: ‘Your ticker’s as crazy as a two bob watch,’ the M.O. had said.
1943		Truth (Brisbane) 2 May 3/3: The usually better balanced Souths’ side was as crotchety as a two-bob watch, while Wests’ youngsters, after a dandy start, faded right out of the fight.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 165: ‘I expect she’s like the rest of the Seasonals; as reliable as a two-bob watch’.
2006		P. Carey Theft 71: My heart was racing like a two-bob watch.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 34: A’m off like a two-bob rocket.