Bounce781
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George Daniels was one of the most sought after watch restorers/repairers in his time; and worked for VERY EXCLUSIVE clients.
On top of that he was a consultant for Sotheby’s, compiling watch catalogues and valuations for them. He also worked as a representative of Breguet in London servicing their most special pieces at significant prices.
Besides that’s, his 1st Pocket Watch was sold for 2000 pounds (which at the time cost more than his house); he later bought that watch back and resold it from various collectors at significant profit. His watches were always VERY expensive and increased in prices with each new pieces.
Later on, he sold the patent for the coaxial to Omega of course.
To say that he did not make a living from his watchmaking endeavours is just not correct.
More posts:
Roger W. Smith - Thoughts on workshop updates
RWS recently moved to a new workshop and with that did some serious updates to his tools: • Two new KERN CNC machines • CNC lathes and feeder Those machines will definitely not only being used for machining parts of the cases but rather for main plates, w...
RWS used CNC machines prior to this, it's how he got WR to 5atm, for example.
The co-axial requires very, very fine tolerances. This will help the timekeeping while allowing for plenty of handwork, etc. I think people should trust Roger to keep his standards.
He has my trust and my deposit :-)
I have every confidence that whatever Roger does will be top notch and will only be an improvement to his current production,something that has evolved since his first watches in 2005 or 2006 I believe. For example, a Series 2 today is an improvement over...
In my opinion...
Roger is investing in his business, trying to evolve the way he works.
Right, people forget that George Daniels made only a small number of pocketwatches.
Roger is mostly responsible for the Millennium series (which was based on an Omega ebauche). I wonder how people would react if he used an Omega ebauche now? :P Roger should absolutely move forward. Between this and the DLC (or whatever it was) coated gea...
and did he make his money from his 37 watches?
Not as far as I understand. He had the luxury of being married to one rich collector's daughter.
I always wondered what his source of income was.
Roger, on the other hand, seems to be doing quite well. With a 4 year wait, it's clear he can increase the number of watches he makes a bit. His moves are very smart to accomplish this and yet also to frame them as steps toward a higher ideal in horology,...
Agreed.
not sure you can make a good living out of selling 37 watches in your life at a price people would be willing to pay if you use the 32/34 methods approach, not now and apparently not then. Good luck Roger
George Daniels was one of the most sought after watch restorers/repairers in his time; and worked for VERY EXCLUSIVE clients.
On top of that he was a consultant for Sotheby’s, compiling watch catalogues and valuations for them. He also worked as a representative of Breguet in London servicing their most special pieces at significant prices. Besides that’s, his 1st Pocket Watch w...
I am familiar with most of these activities...
the question was about the business case for making watches (Smith). On another point, don't forget the patent was as good as expired by the time Omega actually got it into a fit state to productionise and commercialise.
In my perspective both GD & RWS
aimed at accuracy and robustness of mechanical watches. Co-axial escapement was exactly a step towards it. use of latest advancements in tech to achieve them isn’t very different. this April RWS himself announced exploring nano-science for solutions on li...
Waiting time
I wonder if this would reduce waiting time so his price wouldn’t keep rising so much? I am sure the quality is still good but I just wish the price is more accessible. I don’t think he would drop the price, it would certainly upset many collectors who hav...
