The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

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koimaster
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The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

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LONDON — For about 200 years, from the mid-17th century onward, responding to the navigational needs and the opportunities of Britain’s global maritime expansion, English clock and chronometer makers ruled the horologic world — until, oddly, they were replaced by the inward-looking, landlocked Swiss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/fashi ... ish05.html
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

Post by Robin CB »

I like the optimism in these articles, which seem to pop up every now and then, but I think a commercial British watch movement is a little way off yet.

http://www.retail-jeweller.com/products ... 85.article is perhaps more realistic :(

Even Robert Loomes is re-working old Smiths movements (and nothing wrong with that, but it is not a new English movement, its an old one) - http://www.robertloomes.com/

Very happy to be proved wrong of course :D
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

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Robin CB wrote:I like the optimism in these articles, which seem to pop up every now and then, but I think a commercial British watch movement is a little way off yet.

http://www.retail-jeweller.com/products ... 85.article is perhaps more realistic :(

Even Robert Loomes is re-working old Smiths movements (and nothing wrong with that, but it is not a new English movement, its an old one) - http://www.robertloomes.com/

Very happy to be proved wrong of course :D

The Robert Loomes link was interesting. I had no access to the first link though. So you do not think that the co-axil escapment should be classified as British made? I realize it is not an entire movement but it is the heart of it. The Daniels' escapement in the Omega 2500 calibre was a complete re-design of that movement.
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

Post by tempusmaximus »

koimaster wrote:
Robin CB wrote:I like the optimism in these articles, which seem to pop up every now and then, but I think a commercial British watch movement is a little way off yet.

http://www.retail-jeweller.com/products ... 85.article is perhaps more realistic :(

Even Robert Loomes is re-working old Smiths movements (and nothing wrong with that, but it is not a new English movement, its an old one) - http://www.robertloomes.com/

Very happy to be proved wrong of course :D

The Robert Loomes link was interesting. I had no access to the first link though. So you do not think that the co-axil escapment should be classified as British made? I realize it is not an entire movement but it is the heart of it. The Daniels' escapement in the Omega 2500 calibre was a complete re-design of that movement.
I always thought the co-axil was just a modification of the lever escapement to avoid sliding friction, and that it was the escapement that was changed/modified and not whole of the movement .in other words it was just a modification to the base calibre .and that this modification was invented by daniels
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

Post by Robin CB »

koimaster wrote: I had no access to the first link though.
Apologies - it seems to be a subscriber only article, although how I get to it via Google goodness knows, anyway here it is:


Best of British: British watches

August 2010 | By Laura McCreddie

British watchmaking is making a comeback more than 150 years after its zenith, says Laura McCreddie

Normally when you think watches you think Swiss. Something about the country’s mentality seems to make it the ideal place for meticulous clockworks to be developed. However, it wasn’t always so. Great Britain used to have a thriving watchmaking community and recently the British watchmaking tradition has been having a revival.

“It has been creeping up for a number of years,” says Roger Smith, the man behind RW Smith Watches and one of the figureheads of this British revival. “There was George Daniels [who famously created the co-axial escapement] in the late 1960s and I think that started a new generation of people making their own watches.”

British tradition
Smith is one such man. Apart from the balance spring, main spring, a few screws and the glass, all the components of his watches are made in his workshop on the Isle of Man, which, interestingly, is where Daniels also lives. Smith’s aim was to start a production of wristwatches that followed the British, rather than the Swiss horological tradition. “British watches were made to a very high standard,” he says. “Higher than any mechanisms from the great Swiss watchmakers. Watches have never been made to this standard since and I wanted to make a watch that had that level of finishing.”

RW Smith Watches

RW Smith Watches

The golden age of British horology was spanned by men such as John Harrison, Thomas Mudge, George Graham, Thomas Earnshaw and Thomas Tompion - a pocket watch of whose was recently put up for auction. The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London, which was founded in 1631, gathered these men together and between them they created pieces that were prized by the wealthy and powerful. Tompion was such a recognised name that fakes were created of his timepieces while he was still alive.

In the 18th century, London’s Clerkenwell was full of workmen who were employed in various elements of watch production such as escapement makers, finishers and fusee cutters. And output wasn’t limited. A report of a committee of the House of Commons gives the number of watches stamped at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1796 as 191,678.

This continued until the 1850s, when the US started to mass-produce pocket watches and mechanised the whole trade. Pieces could be made to high standards at half the price. Then the Swiss got involved in making wristwatches, which wiped out both the UK and US markets. Soon, “Swiss made” were the two words that everyone wanted to see on the back of a case.

Restoring the balance
However, a shift is beginning. “I think people are looking for something different,” says Giles English, who, with his brother Nick, started Bremont, a watch brand with a very British aesthetic and a company that finishes all its watches in the UK.

Bremont

Bremont

It plans to bring its production back here as well. “There are still very few British-owned watch companies compared with the 400-odd Swiss watch companies. The UK has a huge history, love and passion for clocks and watches,” he adds.

This history is also appealing to retailers and consumers. “Both retailers and consumers have been overwhelmed by the realisation that the history of watch and clockmaking is actually English,” says Abbi Holland, PR and senior brand manager at Rotary, which supplies the J&T Windmills brand. “Since the industry is affiliated with Switzerland, it is a pleasant surprise to celebrate the English origins of the craft.”

The renewed interest in, and desirability of, British origins has also brought a few long-forgotten names out of retirement. John Arnold and George Graham have been brought back from the dead by British Masters SA and have given their names to two different watch brands. And Edward John Dent, the man famous for installing Parliament’s Great Clock, aka Big Ben, has now been revivified thanks to a consortium of British watch enthusiasts, and in 2008 produced a range of watches, having been off the horological radar for the past 40 years.

Dent chief executive Twysden Moore says: “The decision was initially fuelled by the new directors’ passion for watches and belief that their position, as custodians of a national institution, gave them a responsibility to bring a thoroughly British brand to a wider market through Dent watches. For the collector, the end of Dent’s 40-year absence from the primary market would be a source of interest and curiosity. It was therefore important that the watches were iconic and individual. It was also considered essential to the success of the watches that they acknowledge an enviable horological legacy, the parallel of which only a handful of watchmakers in the world - let alone Britain - can claim.”

Dent Parliament watch

Dent Parliament watch

It is not just high-end horology that is going gaga for Great Britain; there are also options for those looking attract the middle market. “We have always done very special watches but now we are moving into the middle market,” says Benney Watches owner Simon Benney, a silversmith to both the House of Commons and the Royal Family and who also produces watches.

“I liked the idea of appealing to a wider audience and looking at a British pedigree from a craft point of view.” He uses materials such as stainless steel instead of gold to keep costs down and also uses Swiss quartz movements. “This is a market dominated by the Swiss,” says Benney. “We rely on them for our movements.”

Which is the problem that lies at the heart of the British watch movement. The days of finishers, balance spring makers and fusee cutters lining the streets of Clerkenwell is long gone. Most British brands, however much they talk up their English roots, are often made in Switzerland and finished in the UK.

Swiss dominance
Ian Walsh, the British watchmaker behind the IWI brand, says: “It is not even a feasible proposition for a small business to try to start making its own movements at this point.” Although Walsh finishes, tests and calibrates each timepiece, the heart that beats beneath its case is Swiss. “Cost is the reason for this,” he explains. “Someone such as Roger Smith makes a very small number of watches and they command a price that normal people couldn’t consider paying. We make watches that are the nearest thing that the man in the street is going to get to a bespoke watch.”

IWI's The Mod

IWI’s The Mod

Lack of component makers is one of the reasons why brands such as Bremont and Benney have to make watches in Switzerland but finish them in the UK. However, the improvement in horological education in this country could see this change. “There are very high-quality people coming out of the British School of Watchmaking in Manchester,” says Smith. “A new member has joined my team who came out of a two-year course there.”

The school teaches the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program (Wostep) course, which is universally acknowledged. The other vote of confidence in British horological education has come from the Richemont Group. Cartier has teamed up with the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University to offer graduates work placements with the luxury brand. Cartier has been recruiting students from the school’s Horology course for years and this partnership will further strengthen the UK’s position in watchmaking circles.

However, we need to try to keep British talent working in Britain. While having the likes of Stephen Forsey working his magic for Greubel Forsey out in La Chaux-de-Fonds can only be a good thing for the UK reputation, the only way we can prevent people such as George Daniels and Robert Smith from being an exception rather than a rule is by promoting British brands, inspiring British watchmakers and making the UK a place where those coming into the industry want to work, rather than thinking that heading to Switzerland is the only way to make one’s name.

And maybe, one day soon, the three words any watch enthusiast will want on their timepiece will be “Made in Britain”.
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

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koimaster wrote:.... So you do not think that the co-axil escapment should be classified as British made? I realize it is not an entire movement but it is the heart of it. The Daniels' escapement in the Omega 2500 calibre was a complete re-design of that movement.
The co-axial is a splendid British invention by a supremely talented British watchmaker (admittedly living on the IOM, but let's not split hairsprings).

It took a foreign company (Swatch Group) to turn it into a commercial product though (Omega 2500 movement) :oops:

[rant] That, as they say, is us Brits all over - great at ideas, but appalling at turning them into commercial reality [/rant]

That is something I would dearly love to be proved wrong on ....
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

Post by tempusmaximus »

i know daniels and smith made some of there own watches from scratch ,but didn't they still use omega movements as the base of there movements and wasn't one of these movements more accurate than a quartz.in other words they never really made there own entire movement.
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

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tempusmaximus wrote:
I always thought the co-axil was just a modification of the lever escapement to avoid sliding friction, and that it was the escapement that was changed/modified and not whole of the movement .in other words it was just a modification to the base calibre .and that this modification was invented by daniels

True, but it spawned the re-design of movements (ie the 2500) in order to incorporate the feature. Daniels also is said to have made several complete watches including case, movement and dials although Rodger Smith may have had a hand in it.
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Re: The British Are Back on the Watchmaking Scene

Post by tempusmaximus »

i agree with what you say,this is a tough one because even though the movement is completely re designed to fit around the modification its still a eta 2892 base calibre.i say this is a tough one because its hard to define ,I believe the 7750 movement was designed by Edmond capt in 1970 but it was designed from the valjoux 7733 another calibre, but if you look at what iwc or ulysse nardin do with there eta movements ,they are completely redesigned parts changed and fine tuned (similar infact to what Shelby do with engines)so they end up looking nothing like a eta movement ,but the fact is its still a eta based movement .

don't eta actually manufacture the 2500,8500 for omega ,so it woudnt really be defined as in house, rather a sister company within the swatch group.but only provide omega with these advanced eta movements.

ps.i don't know but are all movements re-designed from older movements and then classed as a separate movements if so then you could be right,like ive said its a tough one to actually define!
Bernie
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