Finally back in its 38mm red gold case after spending the past thirteen years stripped down to its component parts, Roger’s Series 2, No.000-P was built as proof of concept for a new British watch.
“I was curious to see how far we have come and decided to reassemble this watch which has a very special place in the annals of Roger W. Smith Ltd.” says Roger; “Seeing the watch in its original case brings back a lot of memories and a realisation of just how important this watch has been”.
“First of all, my challenge was to design and build a new movement completely in-house and one which would become the workhorse for all future Roger W. Smith watches. This was several years before my later research and development work on escapements and so it was designed around the original Daniels double-wheel co-axial”.
Thirteen years later, the mechanism is still in use today; but now, in Roger’s Mk2 version, it is pushing the boundaries of mechanical watch design way beyond industry standards as a result of his radical design evolution to achieve the single-wheel co-axial escapement.
“As I look at this watch I realise that, perhaps inadvertently, it lays claim to several British horological ‘firsts’. It is the first production watch to have been designed and built in its entirety within Britain since the demise of Smiths (Industries) in 1971. It’s also the first production watch in the world to have been purpose designed and built around the co-axial escapement. Finally, it is the very first wrist watch to have been designed and built in its entirety within my workshop” Roger concludes.
Comprising just 62 ‘standard’ and 12 ‘open dial’ versions, built over the past thirteen years, the Roger W. Smith Series 2 is recognised as one of the rarest production watches in the world.