The Fourth Wheel, Issue 93

A manifesto for British watchmaking. Plus: Indian weddings, the Overseas upgrades you missed, Cartier hacks and more.

Hello and welcome back to The Fourth Wheel, the weekly watch newsletter that would like to extend a warm yet competitive welcome to the latest horological inbox-botherer, Esquire’s ‘About Time’, launching this Sunday. (Nice name guys! Reminds me of something)¹. I think pretty soon we’re going to need an Anchorman-style royal rumble to sort this out. If you see a group of flustered men in blazers squaring off over a plate of beef carpaccio at Watches and Wonders this year, that’s what’s going down.

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The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

Is Parmigiani Up For Sale? Who Would Buy It?
Issue 91: AMA Extended Bonus edition
Where Are All The Risk-Takers?
What Was The Greatest Era Of Chronograph Watchmaking?
What To Expect In 2024

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Yesterday WatchPro published a column by Robin Swithinbank entitled ‘It’s Wake Up Time For British Watchmaking’. Coming two days ahead of British Watchmaking Day, the inaugural event hosted by the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers, it was a welcome balance to some of WatchPro’s more hastily-assembled puff pieces (also known as ‘oh sod it, just publish eight paragraphs of Mike France holding forth and slap a headline on it’).

I’d just about already decided to dedicate this issue to the topic of British Watchmaking, so Robin’s article was both a blessing and a curse. A curse, because he’s elegantly - and at times quite bluntly - made some of the points I want to make, and a blessing because taking his words as a jumping off point has helped clarify my own thoughts.

Roger Smith’s Series 1 made for British Watchmaking Day

Not all of what follows is directed at the Alliance. Some of it might serve as helpful feedback for its member brands. Some of it I am sure will happen; some ideas, I know, will prove impractical or simply land on deaf ears. It is said with fondness, even though much of it is critical; it is often assumed that journalists are only interested in finding something negative to say, lest they get accused of having lost their analytical faculties and fallen into bed with those they are covering². But it is also said that you are often blind to your own mistakes, and in this instance, if I point out flaws and failings it is so that they might be mended, not to find glee in other’s shortcomings. British journalists will always be British brands’ strongest supporters and harshest critics, which is how it should be³.

With that said, here is, for anyone who needs it, a ten-point manifesto for British Watchmaking in 2024.

1. Bury the hatchet

I wrote about this in Issue 1 of The Fourth Wheel (!) and it is still the first thing that comes to mind when the subject of ‘British Watchmaking’ comes up. Bremont, and everyone else who seems to have such a problem with them, I say to you all: get in a room and sort it the fuck out. Make friends, and fast. Be the grown-ups, let perceived slights go, lose your ego and realise you have more in common than divides you. Alliance members: like it or lump it, Bremont is the biggest British watchmaking success story of the last two decades and the closest anyone is getting to industrialising watchmaking again in this country. Bremont: that may be the case, but keep your feet on the ground and stay humble. You haven’t got there yet.

More broadly, as I said in Issue 1, British watch brands need to stop picking holes in each other’s efforts (it goes beyond Bremont and Christopher Ward, in my experience) and take a leaf out of the Swiss book: think it, don’t say it. Especially not to every journalist you meet.

The Alliance should also work hard to bring in Garrick, Loomes, Struthers, Frodsham and anOrdain/Paulin. No disrespect to the dozens of young start-ups in the Alliance, but there is more watchmaking clout, ability and credibility in those five companies than most of the Alliance combined. When it’s free to join, and you can’t convince serious, established names to be a part of it, somewhere some gears need to be meshed together.

2. Don’t worry about being British, worry about being great

You are British watch brands. You don’t need to remind everyone every five minutes. This might be bad timing, on the eve of, er, British Watchmaking Day, but defining yourself by your nationality is as limiting as it is empowering. Probably more so. Few people wake up in the morning and think ‘I want to buy a British watch’. Finding the watch they love, then realising it’s made in their home country⁴ - that might seal the deal, but it’s not what is going to make people love your watches in the first place. This might be misinterpreted so let me continue: Japanese, or French, or Austrian, or German or even (to an extent) Swiss watchmakers don’t define themselves solely by nationality. They don’t define themselves in opposition to Switzerland, either; we may all have axes to grind about elements of the Swiss industry, but when all’s said and done, the balance of power isn’t going to shift any time soon. Yes, of course, some French or German or Dutch or American watchmakers and watches embody national characteristics, draw on design influences from their homeland, are imbued with a national character, but here’s what they don’t do. They don’t slap their flag on everything they make⁵. They don’t put their capital city on the dial when they’re made somewhere completely different. They don’t - or the good ones don’t - invoke watchmaking greats of that nation when they’re selling a Swiss-powered, Chinese-assembled watch. By all means, have a British trade association - that’s great, and you guys go nuts with the Union flags (I mean, if you absolutely must. I reiterate, we already know you’re British - clue’s in the name). But I say to the brands… dial it down a bit.

3. Get comfortable with the Swiss

They ain’t going anywhere. This is a continuation of the above, really: figure out what you think of Swiss watchmaking and stick to it. No-one expects a British watch manufacturing industry to spring out of nowhere, and frankly in a global economy, it might not make all that much sense if one did. Touching on one of my recommended links, it would be better for everyone if the Swiss were a bit more open about where their watches really got made. It’s a noble goal to ‘bring watchmaking back to British shores’ - at least, it sounds good, even if it does have overtones of ‘take back control’ - but let’s all accept that in the medium term at least, the only way is Swiss. Make your peace with that, and don’t patronise your customers - by which I mean, the ‘us-and-them’ ad campaigns don’t really work when your movements are Swiss, your designs are borrowed from famous Swiss designs and your crowning achievement to date is winning at Switzerland’s biggest award ceremony.