Moving to the Isle of Man

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My aim was to produce an original watch

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Moving to the Isle of Man

George Daniels Master watchmaker

		Views	Duration
31. I beat the quartz watch for timekeeping	1	2381	04:23
32. The Daniels cipher	1	2119	01:25
33. Tick and tock - the double wheel escapement	1	2127	01:20
34. The Tompion Gold Medal		1809	01:31
35. The Space Traveller's Watch	1	3315	06:21
36. The origins of the co-axial escapement	1	2235	04:06
37. Moving to the Isle of Man	1	2210	00:59
38. My aim was to produce an original watch	1	2521	04:08
39. Making all the components for a Daniels watch		2122	01:04
40. The business of selling watches		1980	02:18

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I came to the conclusion that I should leave London when I had fulfilled all my ambitions. I'd been master of the Clockmakers' Company and I'd got this well-established business and a good reputation as a watchmaker, not just a watch restorer, and it seemed to me that it didn't matter where I lived. I was always in touch with people and if I went to the Isle of Man, I would see more of Sam Clutton, who had moved there earlier and it's a very beautiful place. Are we in the Isle of Man now? We are, aren't we?

And it's a very beautiful place. I had a workshop built in the garden and the workshop was built exactly to my specifications. You know, all the light was correct from different directions and so forth, and I started again here making watches again, and the first watch made here was the Space Traveller.

George Daniels, CBE, DSc, FBHI, FSA (19 August 1926 - 21 October 2011) was an English watchmaker most famous for creating the co-axial escapement. Daniels was one of the few modern watchmakers who could create a complete watch by hand, including the case and dial. He was a former Master of the Clockmakers' Company of London and had been awarded their Gold Medal, a rare honour, as well as the Gold Medal of the British Horological Institute, the Gold Medal of the City of London and the Kullberg Medal of the Stockholm Watchmakers’ Guild.

Title: Moving to the Isle of Man

Listeners: Roger Smith

Roger Smith was born in 1970 in Bolton, Lancashire. He began training as a watchmaker at the age of 16 at the Manchester School of Horology and in 1989 won the British Horological Institute Bronze Medal. His first hand made watch, made between 1991 and 1998, was inspired by George Daniels' book "Watchmaking" and was created while Smith was working as a self-employed watch repairer and maker. His second was made after he had shown Dr Daniels the first, and in 1998 Daniels invited him to work with him on the creation of the 'Millennium Watches', a series of hand made wrist watches using the Daniels co-axial escapement produced by Omega. Roger Smith now lives and works on the Isle of Man, and is considered the finest watchmaker of his generation.

Tags: The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, Isle of Man, Cecil Clutton, Cecil (Sam) Clutton

Duration: 1 minute

Date story recorded: May 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008