Good experiences with British brands?

A place to discuss other watch-brands
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bydandie
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Re: Good experiences with British brands?

Post by bydandie »

Andyshall wrote:Again, quite expensive, and not entirely British, but Schofield watches are very nice and have some British links.
Indeed, very distinctive; although to be fair to Schofield, they're straps are made here aren't they?
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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: Good experiences with British brands?

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

bydandie wrote:Whilst the information pertaining to the Smiths movement is held within the website, it's not exactly obvious to most people that the movements don't belong to Loomes.
I think it is, at least if they read it. Not sure how it could be made more obvious, really. If I was going to spend 4 grand on a watch, I think I'd be bothered to find out what was in it.
The movement is a 1950s ebauche (a foreign word for a blank movement) manufactured by Smiths of Cheltenham when their factory there was the largest in Europe. It is completely stripped to its component parts. The plates are polished by hand; the top plates are engraved; the plates are re-polished a second time by hand; The mainspring is replaced with a superior spring, made for us in Hertfordshire. Any less-than-perfect jewel heights are adjusted. The rear centre pivot is jewelled.

The balance is stripped down and the balance wheel is statically poised to ensure its weight is equally distributed. The condition of the pivots is carefully examined. If any part is less than perfect the pivots are re-cut and polished and their jewels are replaced.

The movement is carefully re-built and lubricated. We then embark on the most challenging aspect - dynamic poising. This is where we try to eliminate errors as the watch is being worn. All watches have a certain amount of poising error, even once statically poised. Dynamic poising is the art of preventing your watch running fast pendant (or winder) up and slow pendant down. One of the joys of working with an 18,000 beat per hour watch is that dynamic poising is essential. You must be a good watchmaker rather than simply a cheaply trained assembler to do the job.
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bydandie
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Re: Good experiences with British brands?

Post by bydandie »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote:
bydandie wrote:Whilst the information pertaining to the Smiths movement is held within the website, it's not exactly obvious to most people that the movements don't belong to Loomes.
I think it is, at least if they read it. Not sure how it could be made more obvious, really. If I was going to spend 4 grand on a watch, I think I'd be bothered to find out what was in it.
The movement is a 1950s ebauche (a foreign word for a blank movement) manufactured by Smiths of Cheltenham when their factory there was the largest in Europe. It is completely stripped to its component parts. The plates are polished by hand; the top plates are engraved; the plates are re-polished a second time by hand; The mainspring is replaced with a superior spring, made for us in Hertfordshire. Any less-than-perfect jewel heights are adjusted. The rear centre pivot is jewelled.

The balance is stripped down and the balance wheel is statically poised to ensure its weight is equally distributed. The condition of the pivots is carefully examined. If any part is less than perfect the pivots are re-cut and polished and their jewels are replaced.

The movement is carefully re-built and lubricated. We then embark on the most challenging aspect - dynamic poising. This is where we try to eliminate errors as the watch is being worn. All watches have a certain amount of poising error, even once statically poised. Dynamic poising is the art of preventing your watch running fast pendant (or winder) up and slow pendant down. One of the joys of working with an 18,000 beat per hour watch is that dynamic poising is essential. You must be a good watchmaker rather than simply a cheaply trained assembler to do the job.
Ah, it's been some time since I looked at the website; either way, it's still not their movement or even significantly modified by them although I'm pleasantly surprised that they use a mainspring that isn't used elsewhere. I wonder where they get it from, given that UK-made mainsprings aren't used anywhere else?
Have - quite a few
Want - not too much
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