Making A Tribute to George Daniels Space Traveller

The work of George Daniels has had a major influence over my watchmaking career. As we continue our long and difficult journey to establish a credible British watchmaking company, we are, along with few others, attempting to re-establish an industry which was nearly extinct in this country.

To play our part in this British revival, as it has been named, we have always wanted to produce watches with some level of notability. Casing up brought in movements is a part of the watch industry and something we have done ourselves in the past, but as we attempt to find our own place and the future direction of our workshop, we are realising more that our interest is in design, making and creation. All the members of our workshop are at their best when we can solve problems and learn new things. We don't enjoy repetitive work.

This realisation has been the driving force behind the designs we are currently working on. Whilst the reality is that we do have to carry out servicing and restorations in order for the business to survive financially, we will continue to carve out time alongside this to design and create watches.

I have long considered George Daniels masterpiece to be Space Traveller I. In order to establish the standard of watchmaking in the workshop we are working on a technical exercise of developing a tribute to this watch with a few of our own design touches mixed in. If we can do this project justice, it will stand us in good stead afterwards as we continue to make watches.

The design phase itself is a monster task, even with George Daniels leaving so much information, it is surprising just how much still needs to be figured out in order to produce a full set of drawings with all the dimensions required to actually produce working parts. We have been fortunate to be granted a Solidworks licence under their start up scheme and that has been a massive help.

I expect a few more months of design and then we will start producing parts. The more work we put in at the design stage, the more chance we have of a successful outcome so we will produce a complete set of technical drawings for every part of the watch.

As this is a long term project we will also continue to produce other work in the meantime and also provide updates on those projects too.

This blog, alongside our Instagram and YouTube channels will be regularly updated with the progress of the project. The YouTube channel and our strap sales are used to fund the project so if you can find the time to watch our channel and press like and subscribe on the videos you will be helping to provide the funds to keep the project going.

The tools and equipment required to produce this standard of work costs thousands of pounds as do the materials required so anytime you can watch our videos or purchase your straps from our shop you are providing much appreciated support to the project.