In this Sortie, we’re going to take a look at how the Spitfire came to life and the man that worked tirelessly to make his dream a reality. If you missed the last Sortie about the challenges of making a watch in Great Britain, you can read that here. On 5th March 1936 at Eastleigh …
In this Sortie, we’re going to speak a little about the manufacturing of a watch and the challenge of making a watch that is genuinely “Made in Great Britain”. Then we’ll look at a fascinating story of how a wrist watch saved someone’s life. If you missed the last Sortie, where we look at the …
In this Sortie, we’ll see what it took to be a Spitfire pilot (one of “The Few”) and how modern Spitfire pilots compare. We’ll see how they used their watches. Then take a look at one of the new technologies that is being used in watchmaking. If you missed the last Sortie, you can see …
In this Sortie, we’ll look at the history of the original Spitfire pilot watches that inspired “The Few”, have a glimpse at the progress that is being made on the watch, and have a quick introduction to the watchmaker who is bringing the modern watches to life. If you missed the last Sortie, you can …
Sortie 2 – History of the Spitfire pilot’s watch Read More »
In this first newsletter, Sortie, I’ll give a brief overview of the inspiration for bringing “The Few” to life; a watch built from a WW2 Spitfire. The history of the legendary planes and the heroes that flew in them are central to the design of the watch; and the reason why it was important that …
On 20th December 2019 I started working full-time on my own watch business. It is something that I’ve planned and dreamed of since I first started my training to become a watchmaker. My plan is to create a number of bespoke watches and I already have 5 commissions that I’m working on. I would love …
This is the 2nd part of the 5 part series on how to become a watchmaker. You can read the 1st part here. In this part we will focus on watchmaker training and education, and the different routes you can take on your journey to becoming a watchmaker. I have split this article about learning …
Watchmaker Training and Education – How to Become a Watchmaker Read More »
In 1800 Britain produced around half of the world’s watches, however by 1840 for every one English watch sold the Swiss were able to sell ten. This is the fascinating story of the attempt to remedy this situation. With the ambitious goal of leap frogging Britain back into the leading position as the centre of …
I am very pleased to have been featured in the November/December edition of Timepiece magazine, which is the Newsletter of The British Watch and Clock Makers’ Guild. Below is the text of the article. A five-year apprenticeship training our future watchmakers Encouraging young people to take on an apprenticeship, particularly in technical fields where hands-on …
The past few months have been busy. The biggest recent news is that I have moved house and have now started to reduce my hours at work with the intention to start working on my own watch brand in the extra time I have; with current plans to work full-time as self-employed watchmaker in the …
