Today watchmaking is closely identified in our consciousness with Switzerland, yet English horology was once considered the highpoint of the art for hundreds of years, at a time when Swiss watch making was centuries away from achieving its currently held status. This golden period of English watchmaking was spanned by makers such as Tompion, Harrison, Mudge, Graham, Earnshaw and Arnold. English clocks and pocket watches were prized creations available only to the powerful and wealthy.
The recipient of the longitude prize, John Harrison, shrunk his ship's chronometers in format from extremely large table clocks to a small portable timekeeper within a span of just 40 years, thus paving the way for the diminution of mechanical and accurate timekeeping that would eventually lead to the wristwatch chronometer of today.
This highpoint of English horological creation and invention forms the very basis of the Roger W. Smith workshop's philosophy towards watchmaking. Many design features, including movement layout and structural details, visual proportions and numerous visual details, are directly stimulated by the masterpieces from this period. This inspiration forms the essence from which the workshop reinterprets the past, combining them with modern horological developments such as the Daniels co-axial escapement in order to create exclusive and distinctly English wristwatches for the connoisseurs of today.
http://www.rwsmithwatches.com/
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