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Hello, and welcome back to About Time, On 10am on Saturday March 8th, the doors of London’s Lindley Hall will open once again on British Watchmakers’ Day.
The one-day event began last year, a gathering together of 26 British brands, from well-known names like Christopher Ward and Accurist, to smaller brands like Marloe Watch Company, Zero West Watches and Elliot Brown.
The event was ticketed, and sold out fast, a chance for enthusiasts and collectors to explore a diverse range of British watch culture.
Brands were encouraged to produce one-off watches in limited runs to be sold uniquely at the event, an idea its organisers, the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers, had modelled on Record Store Day.
The Alliance was founded in 2020 by Roger Smith, the acclaimed independent watchmaker, Mike France, the co-founder and CEO of Christopher Ward, and Alistair Audsley, a former brand consultant, adviser and producer.
The official trade body represents 101 British brands, with a primary focus on raising awareness for our once-great industry around the world. An off-talked of dream is to return large-scale watch manufacturing to the UK, something that had withered to almost nothing by t960s, at a the time all things British were at their most desirable.
There was some grumbling in the media prior to last year’s event, with suggestions a day dedicated to British watches was too parochial an idea, and it was difficult to imagine who might care.
In fact, it was a triumph, the jam-packed event that had an international audience queuing around the block hours before the doors opened. Many of them, it must be said, encouraged by a rare opportunity to get their hands on one of Studio Underd0g’s Pizza-party timepieces, something that had the distinction of being one of the hottest watches of the moment.
This year, Brighton’s Studio Underd0g look set to repeat the trick, its lime green 200-piece collaborative watch with Bristol’s Fears, The Gimlet, the subject of an unnecessarily long About Time dispatch from a couple of weeks back. But they are joined by a wider range of brands than before – a total of 44 this year.
They include Schofield, Monro, Bōken, Christopher Ward, Beaucroft Watch Co, Mr Jones Watches, Fears, Sidereus Watches, Isotope Watches and also Bremont – our biggest homegrown brand, who raised eyebrows by staying away last year but are now fully on board.
On Monday I spoke to Alistair Audsley, the Alliance's CEO, and Katya Audsley, its PR and memberships manager, about what to expect from this year’s event, how the British watch business is seen abroad, and what. precisely, constitutes a trestle table. (The event is now sold-out, and there won't be tickets available on the day. However, Katya said they were checking for cancellations, and any returned tickets would be released back to Eventbrite.) |
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The 2024 British Watchmakers' Day opens for business |
About Time: At last year’s British Watchmakers’ Day, the first person in the queue was there at 8am. He’d flown in from North Carolina. Where are people coming from this time?
Katya Audsely: Costa Rica, Turkey, Australia. A lot of people are traveling from the USA. Others are coming from Poland, Germany and France. I’ve had inquiries since August. It does put a bit of pressure on you to get the event organised.
Alistair Audsley: It does seem incredible, doesn’t it? People are spending, presumably, thousands of pounds to come to a show that costs £10 to get in to. AT: How quickly did it sell-out? KA: Within 10 hours. There were people who have missed out, which is very disappointing. But we can’t expand the venue, unfortunately. It’s a Grade II listed building. They give you a capacity, and that’s it. AT: Would you consider extending it? Hold it over a weekend?
AA: No. And that’s about retaining the integrity of the concept. We’ve been to a few events, and typically what we find is there’s a kind of glorious burst on the Saturday, and then Sunday feels a bit dead. But, also, the idea is: “British Watchmakers’ Day”. My inspiration with the concept was Record Store Day. You can probably see a rather large vinyl collection behind me [he’s sat in front of a wall of records]. I’ve always loved the fact that they’ve maintained the integrity of Record Store Day, over its 18 years. This idea of creating a high-pressure focus moment. When everybody has the opportunity to acquire records – or, in our case, special edition watches – for one day.
AT: What about a bigger venue?
AA: We’ve got to make the economics of it work. The big challenge we’ve got is that we are a not-for-profit. So, we’ve got to manage our risk very carefully. It’s something that might be on the cards in the future. But, for now, and with the second event, we just wanted to bed it in. And the exhibiting [Alliance] members love that space. Principally because, for once, you’ve got a venue with really great natural light. At so many of these events, you’ve got get a torch out to see what you’re doing. We polled all our members before last year and said: “What are the key things that you want?” And, right across the board it was: “Can we please have good light?” It’s a prestige venue. Barack Obama has spoken there. Rolex has done launches there. It’s hosted fashion shows.
KA: The other thing people wanted was to be able to actually handle the watches. There are serious collectors who attend. But there’s also a big wave of people who are just getting into it. And many of them are new people. I also feel the wives and the girlfriends of the gentlemen attending are getting really involved now. If you’re new to collecting, and everything is under glass and in cabinets, you feel a bit too restrained to ask: “Can I have a look?” We wanted this event to be a trade sales event, but one where people can also try the watches, talk to the founders and buy. I think that’s what we’ve achieved.
AA: We’re in this early stage of rebuilding British watch culture. And these are the things that are starting to help define us. As Katya says, that really relaxed vibe, but also accessibility to meet the founders of the brands. Also, many of those brands don’t have an opportunity to sell “off the counter”, because it’s difficult to sustain a business model around physical retail. To have opportunities to sell direct to customers, in person, really means a lot to them. I think that had a lot to do with why the event was so successful last year.
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"They give you a capacity, and that's it" |
AT: What did you learn from last year’s event? Are you doing anything differently? KA: Coffee. And beer. AA: We assumed that our attendees would behave like they were at a Swiss event. In fact, it was: “Where’s the beer?” AT: Was there beer? I don’t remember any. AA: It was in very short supply. KA: There is a cafe upstairs selling beer. They did have quite a lot. But it was gone very, very quickly. AT: It’s 10am on a Saturday morning! That’s quite British, isn’t it? AA: Well, there are two sessions [10am-1pm; 2pm-6pm]. Let’s not shame people. Let’s say the beer was for the afternoon session, at 2 o’clock.
AT: When you compare British Watchmakers’ Day to the slick Swiss watch fairs, there are two schools of thought for an event held in a draughty town hall, with brands showing their watches on trestle tables. It’s refreshingly down-to-earth. Or it’s a classic British lack of ambition.
AA: The trestle tables were based on Rolex’s! Actually – they’re not even trestle tables. They’re box tables. And they’re pretty well appointed, Johnny. It’s not like the Women’s Institute.
KA: We’re trying to give all the brands opportunities to exhibit. You can imagine people starting up a brand – there’s no way many of them can afford a London event, normally. So, we have three tiers. We’ve got premium stands for bigger brands around the perimeter, core brands, and then bar brands, where they just pay a nominal amount, basically just to cover our costs. And they do have trestle tables. I mean, they’re neatly done. We try our best. |
Bremont CEO Davide Cerrato checks out last year's event |
Bremont is exhibiting this year.
KA: We’ve got a few new brands. We’ve got Bamford as well.
AA: [Bremont CEO] Davide Cerrato came down on his own last year. In fact, Bremont had agreed they were joining the Alliance quite some time ahead of it becoming public, but they were just lining up the right time to announce it. We’re delighted that they’re going to be at the show this year. And now with Bamford, you kind of feel that everyone is there.
AT: Do you encourage everyone to do special edition watches?
AA: We do. In an ideal world, all 40-odd exhibitors would do one. But, as you can imagine, they have different production pressures, cycles in their release campaigns, and so on. With others, it just coincides beautifully in terms of the date. We’ve got 26 of the exhibitors doing special editions this year. Up from 20 last year.
AT: And do you advise them on the number of watches they should produce?
AA: The thing you find now with Record Store Day is that, for some of the bands, it’s a bit of a contradiction. They’ll release a “strictly limited edition” of 15,000 copies, and then they chart. Record Store Day now has a direct impact on the charts. For me, a limited-edition record is 500 to 1,000 copies. We applied a limit to what would constitute a special edition watch. Ours was 100 pieces. The only dispensation we made was for the collaboration, The Gimlet. We agreed Studio Underd0g and Fears could have 100 each. So there are 200 Gimlets.
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Making dough: Studio Underd0g's Richard Benc hand-delivers Pizza-party watches to a hungry queue |
AT: Last year you could feel a bit sorry for some of the smaller brands. There was a queue around the hall of people waiting to get their hands on a Studio Underd0g “Pizza-party” watch. AA: That was one of the other lessons from last year. Katya has done some clever reshuffling of stand positions, to open the space up to allow for where we think there’ll be a lot of interest. You have to assume Studio Underd0g will be popular again.
KA: It’s been very successful for them. They’re just such a clever brand. But it’s worth saying that most of other special edition watches sold out as well. The Christopher Ward people were literally pinned in a corner.
AA: Also, it was so wonderful to see the smaller brands who “arrived”. The guys at Beaucroft said it literally switched on their business. There was Beaucroft before British Watchmakers' Day. And there was Beaucroft after. They said they didn’t look back after that. The business they did on the day just carried on through. It’s so gratifying when you hear that. Because, we’ve got all these brands, but at the end of the day, we’re a trade body. We’re here to try and support and develop many brands who’ve only just emerged over the last two or three years. And when you get feedback like that, it means we’ve actually had an impact on businesses.
AT: For the special editions this year, Schofield has done three different watches, is that right?
KA: One of them is of two colours, and they worked with an artist to produce them. I have only seen the case back at the moment, but it looks incredible. I get quite fascinated when artists get involved. There’s this mesmerising mermaid on the back. The other is an interpretation of the sea at different times.
AA: The other thing [founder] Giles [Ellis] has done is he’s false-patinated the dial. So, the idea is that the watches should look as if they’ve been discovered after a long time in the sea. Which, I mean, is so Giles. AT: I assumed you’d only revealed the back of that watch, because the front is meant to be a surprise. AA: Oh. I’m sure it’ll be a surprise! AT: Then there's Monro. They've just done one watch, right? AA: That’s right. They’re holding a prize draw.
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The Neutron Violet by Oxfordshire-based Pinion. One of many brightly coloured watches up for grabs this year |
AT: Looking at all the special editions, there are a lot of colourful designs going on.
AA: There are. I think Mr Jones has probably led the way with art collaborations and basing their brand on that. Look at Bōca. They have three watches. They’ve worked with The Dial Artist, Chris Alexander, who’ll be painting dials live at the show. And then they’re going to auction those three watches. You commented on other brands looking at the queue for Studio Underdog. I suspect that, in some in some cases, there was a sense of “Okay, we’re gonna have to up our game next year”. And so this year, you just get the feeling brands are really spreading their wings. You see more confidence, people trying different things.
KA: I’m looking forward to seeing in the flesh what José from Isotope has created with Sophie Scott-Lewis, the artist. AA: That’s also a collaboration with craft. They’ve used cloisonné, a technique apparently goes back to the Byzantine area – it’s 1,000 years old. They found a master enamel to work with. And then [another technique] micro marquetry, which I think is using straw with a glossy sheen on it. [It’s assembling tiny pieces of wood veneer into intricate patterns.] |
Fears Brunswick 40.5mm Jump Hour "Edwardian Edition'". One of 10 available on 8th March |
AT: Nicholas Bowman-Scargill at Fears says he’s already had inquiries from three people flying in from the States who want to get hold of its Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour "Edwardian Edition", which comes in a run of 10. His advice was “Please, just get their early”. Because there’s no pre-reserving.
AA: That's an important point. The one immutable rule we have is: no pre-orders. That’s really important because we’ve got people traveling from all over the world. You want to know that everybody who comes has got a fair crack of the whip, to get the watch they’re looking for. Thankfully, the brands are taking that very seriously. We’d be collectively very disappointed if anyone was allowing pre-orders. The other thing is, one of the key strategies around the event and what we’re doing, is that it’s vital that we break out of the echo chamber of the watch sector, and British watch culture, in order to expand. As Katya was saying, we’ve got a lot more wives, girlfriends and partners coming to the event. And principally there’s the opportunity to bring new people into Lindley Hall on the day. It just exposes our brands to a new, bigger audience.
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AT: How has British Watchmakers' Day helped the Alliance?
AA: In the PR world, they talk about “activations”. And there’s no doubt it’s acted as a springboard. I think it’s really helped to position us. I can honestly say, as the CEO, I’ve started to find myself getting invited to a lot more things [laughs]. I went to the Hong Kong International Watch Forum to talk about British watchmaking as part of a panel of our peer federations. It was the first time we had the opportunity for me present the British sector alongside the [trade associations] The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, and France Horologie. They [France Horologie] feel like they’re probably five to 10 years ahead of us in their journey, in terms of bringing manufacture back, and the size of the sector and its development. You feel that’s where we’d like to be in a few years. I’ve joined a panel of trade bodies to talk about global watch culture and how we grow it. Because it’s the classic example: it’s good for everybody for watch culture to grow, and then we can all fight amongst ourselves for market share. We had some government guests [to British Watchmakers’ Day] last year from the Department for Business and Trade. They’ve been very active and helpful in terms of my constant lobbying to try and open up new markets, and get FTAs [Free Trade Agreements] with new markets. India, I think, is a low-hanging fruit for our sector. The Swiss achieved an FTA some time ago – where we’re still paying significant duties and taxes. So that’s the kind of work that I tend to be focused on in the background. But generally [British Watchmakers’ Day] just raised awareness of the sector. Principally, the Alliance is here to promote the sector. We do try to be conscious of not sticking ourselves in front of that.
AT: Is there scope for more events like British Watchmakers’ Day? Outside of London? Or Britain?
AA: Again, it’s budget-limited. There are things that we’d like to do. One of the barriers we’ve got is that currently there is no government support for small brands to exhibit abroad. That isn’t very helpful in terms of trying to grow a sector like ours. Many of the European countries get up to 40 per cent grants from their governments to support trade show access. There were a couple of schemes in the past, but they were removed. Thus far, I don’t think there’s any intention by the new government to bring those back. It stops us having pavilions abroad, which I think would be fantastic for our sector. It’s something that could work very well.
AT: So you’re constantly lobbying?
AA: That’s exactly what I’m doing. The good thing is that I’m on an Exit economic sector panel. It means that I’m alongside peer organisations. And peer organisations are much bigger than us. You’ve got [Chair of the Future Fashion Factory] Adam Mansell coming from fashion and textiles, and he’s saying, “Minister, our sector’s worth £67bn to the UK economy, you need to listen to us”. Their issues are very much aligned with ours. Similarly, I’ve joined a round table the National Association of Jewelers. That’s an organisation with exactly the same issues that we’ve got. This is something that you’ll find across the board, with luxury and craft-led sectors. In Britain, we had manufacturing. We lost it. We’ve lost an entire generation, or two generations, since it’s shut down, And now we’re all trying to rebuild our sectors. And a shared problem helps us to make a bit more noise. It helps us have a bit more impact.
AT: Do you feel like you’re making headway?
AA: Without doubt. I mean, the first job was to make government aware that there even was a British watchmaking sector. Two years ago, if you spoke to most people working in the Department for Business and Trade, they wouldn’t have had a clue – and certainly not ministers. Now we’ve got a new government the ministerial lobbying starts again. You’ve got to let them know you exist, before you can really start a lobbying conversation. We’ve got our next Bellwether Report coming out in a few weeks. We’re a great story. We’re no longer talking in the echo chamber. We are getting noticed in mainstream media. It starts with awareness. And then you can start leveraging that to lobby.
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AT: We don't really manufacture here anymore. What makes a watch British? Is it “design”?
AA: Very much so. We’ve got such great talent in design. It’s one of the key disciplines from which we’ve got many of our founders, you know. Think about Bryan Leech at Sidereus. Brian was a product designer at Apple during the Celtic Tiger [era]. [Co-founders] Matt [Herd] and Karim [Faisali] at Beaucroft, they come from a design background. [Director] Crispin [Jones] with Mr Jones Watches was an acclaimed sculptor. Until we can bring more manufacturing back to Britain, it’s got to be design-led. There’s so many brands that are starting to redefine what a British watch should be. There’s a sense of fun. There’s a sense of “design wit” that’s inherent. And I think that’s going to inform more of our watches.
AT: The retail value of British watchmaking is around £145m. Mike France has bullishly said he thinks it can reach £1bn in the next decade. Is that realistic?
AA: Look: it’s what they call a “stretch target”. The reason Mike came up with that is that a Mike can talk in terms of those numbers. He has been a captain of retail industry. [Before the success of Christopher Ward, France founded the Early Learning Centre, later selling it for a £62m]. He’s comfortable talking like that. His main point, which I agree with, is it’s about developing an entrepreneurial attitude in our makers to make more of our brands. To think “this doesn’t have to just be a lifestyle business. It can grow”. And when you look at Christopher Ward, you know, they posted figure of £33.4m. They’ll probably get through £50m in the coming year. That has to be inspiring to other brands. And so, to project £1bn is probably more of a financial stretch target – it’s more about establishing an attitude of ambition. And a sense of, yeah, why not? Let’s go for it. And if we all do, we might not reach £1bn. But my word, it will certainly grow the sector significantly.
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Mr Jones Watches Khaosify Mechanical (10 pieces) |
“Since we first launched Khaosify last year, it’s continued to be one of our most popular watches, thanks to its colourful, unruly design,” says Crispin Jones, director of Mr Jones Watches. “This will be the first time it will be available with a mechanical movement. We’ve pushed ourselves to print on different surfaces within the movement, including a supercool little detail on one of the winding wheels, which rotates as you wind the watch.” £750 |
Beaucroft Watch Co. Penfold (75 pieces) |
"With our special edition and collaboration with friend and artist Penfold [Bristol-based Tim Gresham] we wanted to fuse together British watch design with modern art,” says Matt Herd, co-founder of Cambridge’s Beaucroft. “When we think of British design we think about the fusion of tradition craftsmanship and bold contemporary design. Tim is a great friend of our brand, and we admire his ability to evoke mood and emotion through simple, abstract geometry, layered compositions and striking colours.”
£649 |
Bōken Breacher Time Only (3 pieces) |
"We are proud to unveil our Breacher Time Only with three exclusive special editions,” Daniel Banks, Böken’s founder and company director, says. “The dials are designed and painted by Chris Alexander [The Dial Artist] to give a not-so-subtle nod to the heritage of British craftsmanship. What better way to represent that than with designs inspired by three iconic British castles? England’s commanding Windsor Castle, Scotland’s majestic Edinburgh Castle, and Wales’ historic Conwy Castle.”
The three watches will be available through a silent auction on the day, starting at £1,300 |
Isotope
Isotope Mercury C BWD Cloisonné (5 pieces) Isotope Mercury M BWD Micro Marquetry (5 pieces) |
“I wanted to create watches that not only celebrate British craftsmanship but also highlight traditional techniques that are becoming increasingly rare,” says José Miranda, co-founder of the West Sussex-based Isotope Watches. “I worked closely with Sophie Scott-Lewis, who translated my vision into two distinct designs. The micro marquetry dial, crafted by [Parisian artisan] Bernardo d’Orey, revives a 17th-century technique using hand-dyed straw, bringing texture and depth that makes every piece unique. The cloisonné enamel version, shaped by a master artisan, follows an ancient process using delicate gold wires and layers of enamel to create vibrant colours and intricate details. These pieces aren’t just about aesthetics, they’re about proving that small, independent brands can be highly original and innovative while preserving centuries-old techniques, usually only seen in expensive luxury brands.”
Cloisonné, £4,900 plus VAT; Micro Marquetry £4,700 plus VAT |
Schofield Watch Company B6 Deep Blue (10 pieces) B6 Shallow Green (10 pieces) B6 Sea-Change (20 pieces) |
“I wanted to create a watch for British Watchmakers Day because we always used to make watches for the legendary [now defunct live event staged by the watch magazine] SalonQP shows,” says Giles Ellis, CEO of self-proclaimed "eccentric British watch brand" Schofield Watch Company. “As that no longer exists it is nice to be doing it again. It’s a limited edition in two colours, Deep Blue and Shallow Green, specially created for the day. We further developed these watches by collaborating with [American] artist Ben Guffee to poetically age both watches as if they had been at the bottom of the sea… for a very long time.”
The ‘sea-change’ editions have been inspired by lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. ‘Full fathom five thy father lies/ Of his bones are coral made/ Those are pearls that were his eyes/ Nothing of him that doth fade/ But doth suffer a sea-change/ Into something rich and strange.’
“The term ‘Sea-Change’ has become ubiquitous in usage meaning a fundamental change in thinking,” Ellis says. “But originally it was to mean that [the prince of Naples] Ferdinand’s drowned father’s body was replaced bit by bit with the elements of the sea. This inspired us to work together to subtly alter the B6, bit by bit, the parts of the watch exposed to water.” All watches £4,495 |
Sidereus Watches Gordon Bennett (5 pieces) |
“The Gordon Bennett is a special edition of the Sidereus Newgrange Date/Time model featuring a lustrous British racing dial,” says Bryan Leech, co-founder and designer of the County Carlow, Ireland-based watchmaker. “The story of British racing green goes back to the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, the forerunner of modern F1 racing. Selwyn Edge won the 1902 event driving a British Napier from Paris to Innsbruck. Edge was the only competitor to finish the race, and Britain would be required to defend the win on home soil the following year. In many ways, the historical link of British racing green and Ireland mirrors the spirit of collaboration and the shared traditions that unites members of the Alliance from across the British Isles. We wanted to show our appreciation to the Alliance – for their continued support and friendship.”
£2,760 |
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The second meeting of two of horology's most singular design minds, this week's surprise release reimagined Bulgari's reptilian Serpenti watch through MB&F's avant-garde lens. The resulting retro-futuristic, automotive-adjacent Bulgari x MB&F Serpenti comes in three limited editions of 33 – titanium, black PVD-coated steel and 18k rose gold (above). Two rotating domes display the hours and the minutes, said to resembles the eyes of a serpent. It's... a lot. But you've got to be happy it exists. €119,000/ €136,850
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Images: British Watchmakers' Day; Johnny Davis; Fears; Pinion; Mr Jones Watches; Beaucroft Watch Co; Bōken; Isotope; Schofield Watch Company; Sidereus Watches; Bulgari; Getty Images; Rado; Blancpain |
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