Tag Archives: roger smith isle of man

Roger Smith – Great Britain

 

Great Britain

Sorry my blog is becoming a series of re-post of other people’s work but this watch really merits being talked about and unfortunately have not had a chance to review it 🙁

So until I get my hands on one please have a look at this article.

https://www.phillips.com/article/33864317/roger-w-smith-reunited-with-the-great-britain-watch

Roger Smith – Grand Prix D’Horlogerie De Genève Jury

British Watchmaker – Roger Smith

This was obviously intended to be a Roger Smith week. I was planning to post a nice little video he had put on Twitter of a co-axial movement and then ….

I read he has been named as part of the jury for the prestigious 2017 Grand Prix D’Horologerie De Geneve. As well as a great personal honour for Roger I am sure we can take this as a great compliment to British watchmaking. Congratulations Roger !

The Watchmaker’s Apprentice

I had been meaning to watch this film every since it came out. Finally, prompted my a fellow watch lover I got round to watching it last night.

What you get from it are several things one a fascinating insight into the work of a watchmaker, which looks a lot tougher than you might romantically imagine. Then you get a clear idea of the personalities of the two men George Daniels and Roger Smith. I have never met George Daniels and the film confirmed the opinion I had always held that George Daniels is one of the most important figures in the history of horology. We also get to discover some of the other facets of the man’s personalty such as his passion for vintage cars and  perfectionism.

On the other hand I have briefly met Roger Smith who has always struck me as being a very pleasant and patient man. What the film showed very well also was his dedication and perfectionism. How many people would work on a project to help obtain an apprenticeship for seven years?

So as well as being of horological interest this film is very motivational, showing that to achieve greta things you need dedication, dedication and more dedication.

Two Roger Smith’s for sale!

Those clever people at Hodinkee tweeted a few days ago that they have discovered not one but two early example of British watchmaker Roger Smith’s work for sale.

Series 2 & Daniels Anniversary

Series 2 & Daniels Anniversary

Clearly these are not cheap. The gold Series 2 is up for £150,000 , the Daniel’s Anniversary for £235,000 .

For the complete story  https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/two-early-roger-w-smith-watches-watch-xchange

 

George Daniels for auction

There is some exciting news for well off fans of British watches. A George Daniels watch is coming up for sale at Bonhams next month.

George Daniels 35th Anniversary

George Daniels 35th Anniversary

The price estimate is between £70-100,000.

Read the whole article here on Salon QP http://www.salonqp.com/updates/watch-news/george-daniels-sale-bonhams/

British Watchmaking on BBC !

On my return from my holiday today I had the pleasure to read an article on the BBC website discussing the revival of British watch making.

Union Flag

The article as you might expect was not very in-depth but it did give a welcome boost to the efforts being made by British watch brands. The reach off the BBC clearly puts Grinidgetime to shame so I hope it stimulates people to investigate further. I would have been great to see a few more brands mentioned.

The full article is  here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36902222

 

 

 

 

George Daniels – Space Traveller

Roger Smith tweeted this short video clip of his mentor George Daniels’ Space Traveller watch displayed in the Manx Museum.

I thought I would find out some more about this impressive pocket watch and this is it’s story.

Dr. Daniels was on a trip to Zurich where he met an important collector for dinner. The collector nudged him and said ‘what do you have in your pocket’, so he took out his watch, a gold Daniels pocket watch with independent double-wheel escapement. The collector said he had to have the watch and asked him to sell it to him. Dr. Daniels said it was not for sale but the collector persisted. Dr. Daniels thought this was an enormous compliment as he did not even ask the price, and so sold him the watch. Dr. Daniels immediately regretted selling this watch and therefore decided to make another which would be an improvement on the first both in terms of complication and accuracy. Having not fully exploited the first watch, the second watch would have separate calculations for each train, it was therefore possible to indicate both mean-solar and sidereal time.In the 18th century to check the accuracy of your watch you had to have a precision clock which was set by a star. This watch by means of having solar and sidereal time could make the calculation for you, the difference being 3.555 minutes per day.

To try and improve the calculation of the train which allowed for an error of 0.8 seconds per year Dr. Daniels contacted a friend at Cambridge University to ask if they knew of a mathematician interested in watches. He got a response almost immediately and extraordinarily enough the mathematicians name was Professor Daniels. The professor was able to calculate a better ratio of 0.28 seconds per day, which Dr. Daniels was very happy with.

Dr. Daniels used to say to people, ‘when you are on your package tour to Mars you need a watch like this, and when using the telephone for long distance calls you could switch the chronograph into sidereal time to cut your bills by 3.555 minutes per day’.Originally the watch had been referred to as the Daniels squared (2) because of the assistance he received from Professor Henry Daniels but Dr. Daniels did not think this was good enough so named it the ‘Space Travellers’ watch in honour of the American landing on the moon which was the greatest space exploratory journey of the century.