Roger Smith - The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII Geneva Saturday, May 13, 2023 | Phillips

The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII

Geneva Auction 13 - 14 May 2023

  • Manufacturer: Roger Smith
    Year: 2021
    Movement No: S1-N.17
    Case No: No. 17
    Model Name: Series 1
    Material: 18K pink gold
    Calibre: Manual, in-house caliber single wheel co-axial escapement, 28 jewels
    Bracelet/Strap: Leather Roger Smith strap
    Clasp/Buckle: 18K pink gold Roger Smith pin buckle
    Dimensions: 38mm Diameter
    Signed: Case, dial, movement, and buckle signed
    Accessories: Accompanied by Roger Smith original certificate, ownership and specification documents, polishing cloth, leather card holder, fitted presentation box and outer packaging.

  • Catalogue Essay

    Roger Smith is in a way the standard bearer of British high horology; meticulously crafting mechanical masterpieces in his workshop on the Isle of Man to which only a happy few would have access, not by deliberate choice, but due to the limited production of 15 watches leaving his atelier each year. Roger Smith was not only the sole watchmaker the great George Daniels took on board as an apprentice, but he later collaborated with the master in working on his wristwatches. In 1998, Smith joined Daniels to work on the Millennium series of wristwatches. Once the Millennium series was completed, in 2001, Smith decided to set out on his own and create his own wristwatch. He set up a stand-alone workshop alongside Daniels’ on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and set to work. The Series 1 was born, heavily inspired by Daniels' work, first in a rectangular case inspired by the then-recently released Arkade by A. Lange & Söhne. After the production of the rectangular Series 1 followed the Series 2, a round wristwatch with a power reserve display. In 2013, Roger Smith was invited to be part of the GREAT Britain campaign, showcasing the splendor and innovation of contemporary British watchmaking. He created a unique piece “The GREAT Britain” in platinum, with an off-centered Union Jack motif, hand-finished and highly three-dimensional.

    Following this triumph, Smith says he was “inundated with requests for a time-only piece.” And thus, the new Series 1 was born, displaying only the hours, minutes, and seconds via a subsidiary seconds dial. It was meant to be the quintessential gentleman’s watch, with all of the refinement, experience, and heritage of three hundred years of British watchmaking distilled into a single 38 or 40mm round timepiece – all painstakingly hand-built and hand-finished by Roger Smith and his few trusted colleagues.The present Series 1 in pink gold with pink gold chapter ring is only one of 3 pink gold models cased in 38mm and the only one made in this case/dial combination thus adding an even greater element of collectability.

190

Roger Smith

An exceptional, important, and extremely rare pink gold wristwatch with subsidiary seconds, co-axial escapement, and engine-turned dial, numbered 17, accompanied by original certificate and presentation box, the only one known in this combination

2021
38mm Diameter
Case, dial, movement, and buckle signed

Estimate
CHF150,000 - 300,000 
€156,000-312,000
$171,000-343,000

Sold for CHF730,250

Contact Specialist

Alexandre Ghotbi
Head of Watches, Continental Europe and the Middle East

+41 79 637 17 24
AGhotbi@phillips.com

Tiffany To
Head of Sale, Geneva

+41 79 460 55 88
TiffanyTo@phillips.com

The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII

Geneva Auction 13 - 14 May 2023