Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a watch, esp. a striking watch or a repeater.

1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II ii: Here’s a tatler — gold, all gold, you rogue.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tattler, an Alarm, or Striking Watch, or (indeed) any.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 14: Tatler, a Clock or Watch.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 210: Tatler a Watch.
1724		‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 23: A Famble, a Tattle, and two Popps, / Had my Boman when he was ta’en.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 8: [He] afterwards snabbled their Wins and Tatlers, (that is pick’d their pockets of their Pence and Watches) .
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account 31 July 🌐 Then they pulled out their ? Tatlers, and tipp’d him them likewise [...] ? Watches.
1754		G. Stevens ‘A Cant Song’ Muses Delight 177: As I derick’d along to doss on my kin / Young Molly the fro-file I touted, / She’d nail’d a rum codger of tilter and nab, / But in filing his tatler was routed.
1774		J. O’Keeffe Tony Lumpkin in Town (1780) 20: That fellow has got a tatler, strike him plump.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: tatler A watch. To flash a tatler; to wear a watch.
1788		‘Rolling Blossom’ in Festival of Anacreon in Wardroper Lovers, Rakers and Rogues (1995) 180: To Scamping Sam I gave my hand, / Who milled the blunt and tatlers.
1795		Sporting Mag. July VI 205/1: These gentlemen pickpockets [...] are very frequently attended by their girls, who are equally expert at the nabbing of a Tatler or a Reader.
c.1800		‘Tom the Drover’ No. 30 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Sal Squiney ’tother night nap’d a tatler.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 11: At a quarter past ten, by Pat C–TL-R-GH’S tattler, / Crib came on the ground, in a four-in-hand rattler.
1824		Annals of Sporting 1 Feb. 127: Spring drew out his tattler, and declared — ‘It is time’.
1829		‘On the Prigging Lay’ (trans. of ‘Un jour à la Croix Rouge’ in Vidocq 1829) IV 262: The downy set. / All toddled, and began the hunt / For readers, tatlers, fogles, or blunt.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 309: My ticker, my tatler, my thimble, otherwise my watch, I bequeath to Jerry Hawthorn, Esq.
1833		‘Jerry Abershaw’s Will’ in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 17: He said his mother told him he would die in his shoes, / ’Cause he boned his father’s tatler from his fob.
1842		Egan ‘The Bridle Cull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 140: Then, my blades, when you’re bush’d, and must have the swag, / Walk into tattlers, shiners, and never fear the lag.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 107: tatler a watch; ‘nimming a tatler,’ stealing a watch.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 84: Tattler, a watch or clock.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 144: I never expected Tom Scrutton to mill him, but I’d put my old silver tattler on Bendigo doing it.

2. the tongue.

1695		N. Ward Auction 15: Beau Draper, who by the Powder of his Wig, and the bewitching Hum of his Tattler, [...] hath ruined two of your Metropolitan Sash Window Cherubins.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 Sept. 2/6: The prisoner, with the prudence of a thorough-paced rogue, did not trouble his tattler in his defense.
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: If you don’t keep your ‘tattlers’ still /You’ll hear again.

3. (Aus.) a racecourse tipster, presumed to be fraudulent.

1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Aug. 4s/8: The tipster, tug and tattler / [...] / Damning and blasting Creation’s eyes / Are the Mob who Maced the Rattler.
1911		Truth (Brisbane) 22 Jan. 6/5: [headline] Tugs, Tattlers, and Take-downs / Growling Grab-alls, and the Multitudinous Mug.