Even though George Daniels has passed away a few years ago in some regards his spirit lives on in the work of Roger Smith. Daniels' protege and also an independent watch maker located on the Isle of Man, Roger still works hard to maintain the standards that George Daniels set out for him during his time working under Daniels - a master watchmaker. Among those mandates were that all watches needed to be made by hand, using hand-made parts, and of course, completely decorated by hand. Some of the techniques used in his watch are hundreds of years old while others are the inventions of George Daniels or Roger Smith themselves. In any event, these are watches built mostly as one-of-a-kind creations, such as the recently completed GREAT Britain by order of the English government.
Roger Smith produces about 10 or so timepieces per a year. If you realize just how long it takes him to make each then you understand how that actually sounds like a lot. It takes the man a few days just to produce and polish the hands. The dial of the GREAT Britain watch with its Union flag motif apparently took months (more on that later). Guess what happens if he messes something up? Yea, it all needs to start from the beginning. Smith doesn't use computerized CNC equipment to produce the small parts that go in his watches, and further takes a distinct pride in keeping this type of craftsmanship alive. The real message is in the result, which illustrates how hand-made watch parts have a very different look than those produced in a machine.
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