HISTORY
British watch making was at the forefront of the international industry for centuries, and today that heritage is being revived as interest rekindles in homegrown watches. And even the BBC is onto it.
BRITISH T
Avery
he story of British watchmaking goes back centuries. The renowned horologist John Harrison invented and developed a chronometer for ships’ navigation in 1735, designed to solve the problem of navigating the globe across the oceans, travelling east and west. Decades of refining the chronometer’s design and
mechanics to achieve previously unobtainable levels of accuracy lead to a portable version of the chronometer in 1760 – the true predecessor to pocket watches that were ubiquitous by the beginning of the 19th century. Today the British watchmaking sector is a shadow of its former self – but a number of luxury end businesses that are designing and hand making automatic pieces are driving a revival using both British and Swiss-made components.
Such is the interest in British watchmaking that
BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast a programme as part of its In Business series on the subject. Watchmaker Chris Ward was interviewed for the programme. In the broadcast Chris talked about how the Christopher Ward business was stripping away some of the hype associated with the luxury watch sector and was bringing British designed premium watches to watch enthusiasts at accessible prices.
8
www.christopherward.co.uk The Radio 4
programme also looked at some of the UK’s other luxury
watchmakers. Among them were Isle of Man- based Roger Smith – who produces just 10 pieces a year that sell for about £45,000 each; George Daniels, now retired, who invented the co-axial escapment in the early 1970s; IWI which takes two weeks to make one watch; and Dent, which made Parliament’s Big Ben in 1814 and now makes both clocks and watches.
The British watchmaking industry is also being boosted by the British Watchmaking School in Manchester – set up in 2004 by a clutch of major watch brands, including Patek Philippe, concerned about the worldwide shortage of watchmakers – which is bringing back the craftsmanship and engineering skills of watch-
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