The Fourth Wheel, Issue 94

Exclusive interview: Roger Smith on British watchmaking, the growing Alliance and the brands that are 'conning' customers

Hello and welcome back to The Fourth Wheel, the weekly watch newsletter that was disappointed to miss the inaugural British Watchmaking Day last weekend. Family commitments meant I could only immerse myself in watches for five days out of seven. It’s a shame though, because I hear, and see, that it was a great success. I’m pleased! Readers of last week’s ‘Manifesto for British Watchmaking’ might take me for a cynic (yes) who can do nothing but throw rocks (not the case) at others’ efforts. Perhaps it’s worth adding to my thoughts from last week that what we have today is significantly better than what we used to have, but I think you can celebrate British watchmaking and wish it were doing even better at the same time without too much in the way of mental gymnastics.

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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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I was sorry to miss the British Watchmaking Day for many reasons, but a major one is because I now realise I would have seen Bremont CEO Davide Cerrato on site, and I could have heard from his own mouth the news that Bremont is joining the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers. Indirectly I have heard a number of people report similar conversations with him, plus of course Rob Corder, editor of WatchPro, heard it and published it earlier this week. This is great news! Not only does it fulfill Item One on my manifesto, but in a world that doesn’t revolve around me, it’s great news for British watchmaking and the Alliance.

Bremont has not officially confirmed it, however, so for the time being it remains - technically - hearsay, even if the person doing the saying is the one running the company. Announcing the news soon would make sense for a number of reasons: it would capitalise on the buzz generated at the event, and confirm what many will assume to be the case from Davide’s surprise appearance; it would also give Bremont a nice moment of good press at a time when it can’t talk about watches. (As participants in Watches and Wonders, the brand is prohibited from announcing new watches in the month preceding the event; all exhibitors must keep their powder dry for April 9^th.) But for now, we must wait.

Instead, I caught up with Roger Smith, Chairman of the Alliance, to talk about the event, British watchmaking in general, that open letter to the industry and his hopes for the future.

Roger Smith, working on a watch and wearing his trusty Rolex Explorer

The Fourth Wheel: Why do you think this event had such a particularly good atmosphere?

Roger Smith: I think it was something very new, the likes of which have never been seen before, focussing purely on British home-grown brands and talent. I talked to many people who were really pleased to see something happening in Britain again, in terms of watchmaking, and they felt they were part of a big moment. In fact one person said to me that he felt that this was day one of the rebirth of British watchmaking.

TFW: Did you remind him that you’d been doing it quite a long time?

RS: Ha - yes, well, yes… but I know what he meant. It was quite a significant moment for British watchmaking.

TFW: How do you feel about the future of British watchmaking today?

RS: Very positive, particularly after the event. The level of enthusiasm was incredible. I think there were over 5,900 watches sold on the day. For me it’s the first time I’d managed to meet some of our trade members. We now have 92, 44 of those were exhibiting, and there was a real thirst for what’s happening. The vast majority of these companies have been formed by people from outside of the industry, which I think is really refreshing. It really bodes well for the future.

TFW: Which new brands impress you, and why?

RS: I saw Sidereus, I loved the case design, it’s something very unique. It’s a very personal watch to the owner of the business. Vertex was impressive too. I would say generally, what I saw, amongst the few that I did see, was was incredible quality at a really good price. The one thing that came across was real value for money.

TFW: What is it about the notion of Britishness that is important to you? How do you define the national character of our watchmaking?

RS: In Britain we have a great horological past. Most of the horological developments were invented in Britain, But this is very different. The watchmakers that were there have no real connection to that; they are coming from a very different perspective, either centred around art and design, or perhaps wishing to re-establish lost family businesses. So the drive is very different really. I think a lot of people in Britain, despite what you may hear in the media, are actually proud to be British and perhaps this is a chance to connect with that.

TFW: Robin Swithinbank wrote for WatchPro that he couldn’t be sure what values best describe British watchmaking. What qualities are – or should be – associated with a British-made, or British-owned watch?

RS: To me [what was on show] felt very fresh, very different, and not held back by traditional constraints of watchmaking. If you look at what’s happening in Switzerland, there are fantastic watches being made, but they’re all held back by tradition. With British watchmaking [today] that all seems to have been thrown out of the window to a certain extent, to the advantage of the emerging trade.

TFW: It’s interesting to hear you say that; many, myself included, would have described a connection to tradition as one of your strongest characteristics, as a watchmaker. Are things changing?

RS: Yes, yes it is. I am one of those odd ones now, within British watchmaking, who has been brought up in that traditional world, and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. But I always say, if you had 100 Roger Smiths or George Daniels, you can’t build an industry out of that. We’d make are too few watches. We need young entrepreneurial people to come in and shape it into something quite different, something that doesn’t compete with other watchmaking nations¹, and there was proof of that working on Saturday.

TFW: A decade ago, you wrote a strongly-worded open letter to the industry on the subject of British watchmaking. Do you still stand by everything you wrote?