Handmade repeater mechanisms

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I kept some of my best watches to amuse me

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Handmade repeater mechanisms

George Daniels Master watchmaker

		Views	Duration
41. Each Daniels watch is different	1	1711	02:06
42. Handmade repeater mechanisms		1619	00:51
43. I kept some of my best watches to amuse me		1741	03:06
44. My struggles to get the Swiss watch industry interested		2030	02:50
45. The co-axial escapement was a superlative timekeeper		1971	02:40
46. The difference between lever and co-axial escapement		4579	01:46
47. Who would produce the co-axial escapement for me?		1898	01:31
48. Persuading Omega to take an interest in the co-axial escapement	1	2554	05:23
49. Putting on a show at the Baselworld Fair		1621	00:56
50. Patek Philippe produce a poor replica of the co-axial escapement		2427	02:43

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And then, of course, if one goes back through horology all sorts of things have been invented, like repeating work so a watch sounds the hours and the half hours, or it can have additional mechanisms to sound the quarter hours or the minutes, all these can be sounded, and they're quite an attraction to people. They were very necessary in their day because there were no easy means of striking a light in the years before the 19th century, and the only way to find the time at night was to have a repeater, push the button at the top and it would tell you what the hours and quarters and the minutes were if you could afford a minute repeater. They were all very expensive, all handmade.

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: Handmade repeater mechanisms

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: repeater mechanism

Duration: 52 seconds

Date story recorded: May 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008