Trending on tick-tock: why British watches have hit the big time

Watch collectors and horological connoisseurs added a new trade fair to their calendars this year. It was not launched in Switzerland – centre of excellence for luxury timepieces and home to brands such as Patek Philippe and Rolex – nor with a party in Paris or Milan attended by fashion’s front row, but at a Royal Horticultural Society lecture hall in London.

The inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day attracted international visitors from the US, Dubai and Norway last month, and tickets sold out six weeks in advance. The most expensive watch at the event went for more than £595,000 – it was sold in a closed bid auction, and the exact price was not disclosed – but timepieces around the £100 mark were also snapped up.

Though still relatively small – for comparison, Watches And Wonders Geneva, an annual international trade fair this month, attracted 45,000 visitors – British Watchmakers’ Day reached its 1,400 capacity, and was set up in response to a growing industry.

In 1800, the UK made around half of the world’s watches: 200,000 a year. Apart from a brief postwar renaissance , the industry has been in constant decline – until now.

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Tracey Llewellyn, editor of the Horological Journal for the British Horological Institute, said the cult of particular British watchmakers has been key: “Around 2020, watch collecting, which had previously been niche, became a worldwide phenomenon – with a focus on independents, who make very small numbers of watches and specialise in hand craftsmanship and finishing.

“Many of these artisans credit the late Isle of Man horologist George Daniels and his book Watchmaking as their inspiration. This turned attention on Brits following in his wake, particularly Daniels’ sole apprentice, Roger Smith.”

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Garrett thinks that British watchmakers’ show unique creativity because many of them are so new to the industry: “Swiss makers have hundreds of years of experience on many of us. We don’t have great-grandfathers who made watches, or hundreds of thousands of people who know our brands by name. We have to be unique and own our niches. We have to have a strong USP.”

A byproduct of this is a new camaraderie. “It was pretty lonely being an independent British watchmaker when I started in 2017,” said Garrett. “Now there’s an open-door policy between founders. British Watchmakers’ Day was pretty epic. It felt like we were part of something bigger.”

According to Alistair Audsley: “We’re seeing exponential growth and that makes the whole sector look at long-term opportunities. We’re also seeing more makers take on skilled craftspeople. Meanwhile we’re building our own major brands. It’s a long journey ahead but we’re taking bigger steps.”

Garrett added: “We have to stop people thinking that their first nice watch has to be Swiss.”