Roger Smith is more than a master watchmaker. He is a man of resilience, focus and drive.
At the age of 16, Smith's parents sent him to watchmaking school in Manchester where he graduated in 1989 and won the British Horological Institute’s Bronze medal for the most outstanding student in his final year.
It was around that time that he met George Daniels, an encounter that would shape his life as a watchmaker.
After graduation, Smith joined TAG Heuer in the repairs department and contacted Daniels, offering his apprenticeship. A dry refusal led Smith to create his first entirely hand-made pocket watch. He set up his workshop in his parents' garage, quit his job at TAG Heuer and set out to create a tourbillon pocket watch with detent escapement.
The watch took a year to finish but Daniels did not find it to be good enough. Smith went back to his workbench and spent another 5 years working on a tourbillon pocket watch with a perpetual calendar. Upon completion he went to see Daniels, who asked Smith where the case, dial, movement etc. were made. When Smith replied they were made by him, Daniels turned to him with these resounding words “congratulations, you are now a watchmaker”.
In 1998, Smith joined Daniels as an apprentice 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 is also, remarkably number 1, hence, the very first produced, assembled, and likely delivered of this new generation of Series 1. It comes directly from the collection of the original owner, a staunch champion of British watchmaking. It measures 40mm in diameter, rendered in 18K pink gold, with Roger Smith’s characteristic hand-engraved dial and unique elongated spade-tipped hands. The movement is finished in a classical English style, with frosted and gilded plates, a floral scroll motif hand-engraved on the barrel bridge and balance cock, and of course, Smith’s refined and honed Daniels co-axial escapement.
It is offered here in excellent condition, having been carefully worn and enjoyed, and accompanied with its original paperwork from Roger Smith.
PROPERTY OF THE ORIGINAL OWNER