Watchmaker 'proud' to honour late master's legacy

In the footsteps of his master, the former apprentice of celebrated Manx watchmaker George Daniels is working on an unfinished timepiece started by the late horologist.

Daniels, who died in 2011, is believed to be the first person in history to make every component of a watch from scratch and by hand.

Roger Smith moved to the Isle of Man in 1998 to work with him, becoming his one and only apprentice.

Continuing his legacy at his workshop in Sulby, Mr Smith has spent the last 18 months working on Daniels' final project, known as the Unfinished Pocket Watch.

Mr Smith said: "When I moved to the Isle of Man in 1998 to work with George, he sat at this bench and he started to make this pocket watch."

"He just simply ran out of time and he never quite finished it," he explained.

Mr Smith has now been able to dedicate more time to completing the watch, which he predicted would take a further six months.

Carrying on his late master's legacy in this way made him "very proud", he said.

And the process of completing the unfinished pocket watch had been a long one, Mr Smith explained, as getting back into the mindset of his late master had taken time.

He said it had been "interesting" to "get back into his head" and it took six months before he "finally worked out the exact point where he was and where he stopped - so that has been an amazing experience".

The watch is "stunning" but "very complicated", he explained, with more than 250 individual components.

Mr Smith said there were no drawings for the watch, which was "the vision of one man. He created it, designed it, developed it, as he built it".

It was that kind of process that made "you realise you're dealing with greatness there, and that's special", he continued.

Mr Smith first met Daniels at the age of 19 at a college in Manchester.

He now runs Britain's only fully handmade-watch business, with wife Caroline and his team of watchmakers in Sulby.

"This is sort of watchmaking at its very sort of rawest state, you know using these hand tools around here, and hand filing components," he said.

And Daniels was "at the heart of the business", he said, adding: "This idea that raw material enters one end of the building and a year later, a completed watch will leave at the other end, that's very special in watchmaking."

Mr Smith said towards the end of Daniels' life "he knew it would never be done" and "it was always known actually that I would be finishing the piece".

"I'm very proud really, I just hope I can do that justice," he said.

Mr Smith recently received the Gaia Award, recognising creativity and craftsmanship in watchmaking.

Hailing from Switzerland, the world's watchmaking centre, Mr Smith said: "As a British watchmaker, to have that recognition that you're doing something different and worthwhile I think is very special".

The award itself also follows in the George Daniels' footsteps, who received the same accolade in 2006.

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