Inspired by the armoured genius: his red and gold, and the reactor glowing at the centre. A skeletonised Japanese automatic under sapphire, assembled in England.
Choose the case, metal, movement, dial, hands and strap, or set your own photograph as the dial. Then book a consultation and we will finish it with you.
Most watches, at almost every price, are made this way: each part from a specialist maker, brought together by someone who cares how it all fits. Here is our flagship, taken apart, with the story behind each piece.
Synthetic sapphire sits at nine on the Mohs scale of hardness. Only diamond is harder, so the keys and coins it meets every day won’t scratch it. Rolex moved the Submariner to sapphire at the end of the 1970s, and it has marked out a serious watch ever since.
Famously used by Rolex Submariner · Omega Seamaster
Ceramic is fired, not painted, so the colour runs all the way through. Sunlight won’t fade it and everyday wear won’t scratch it. Rolex made ceramic bezels famous with Cerachrom in 2005, and red proved one of the hardest colours to fire: it was 2014 before red ceramic reached the GMT-Master II. Ours sits in a coin-edged, gold-tone surround, for grip and a flash of warmth.
Famously used by Rolex GMT-Master II · Omega Seamaster Diver 300M
Most dials hide the machine. This one is cut back to a web of ice-blue steel, so the movement shows from edge to edge. Openworking is one of the oldest crafts in watchmaking, and it still turns up at the very top of the trade. The hands are skeletonised to match, so nothing solid stands between you and the mechanism.
Famously used by Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Openworked · Hublot Big Bang Unico
The heart is Japanese: the NH70, built by Seiko’s own movement maker. It is the skeletonised member of the NH family, with its bridges and plates cut away so you can watch it work through the open dial. It winds itself as you move, stops the seconds hand so you can set it exactly, and runs for around 41 hours off the wrist. The part that makes it tick, the lever escapement, is an English invention. Thomas Mudge devised it in London around 1755.
Made by Seiko Instruments, Japan
Steel became a luxury material in 1972, when Gérald Genta’s Royal Oak launched in stainless steel at the price of a gold watch. Ours is marine-grade stainless steel, chosen because it resists salt water and sweat and wears well. The flanks are brushed, and the crown is knurled and gold-toned to answer the bezel.
Famously used by Audemars Piguet Royal Oak · Patek Philippe Nautilus
FKM is the rubber that aerospace and motorsport rely on for seals that must not fail. It is dense and supple, and it stands up to sweat, salt water and sun cream without turning sticky, collecting dust or fading. Rubber first met fine watchmaking in 1980, when Hublot put a gold watch on a rubber strap. Today FKM is the standard for a good rubber strap.
A tradition begun by Hublot, 1980
Each part comes from a maker that specialises in it. The watch itself comes together in England.
A dial cut with a spider’s web under a black sixty-minute bezel, in three versions: one for each actor who has worn the suit on the big screen.
Brushed steel · Red web dial · White leather
Black PVD steel · Black web dial · Black leather
Brushed steel · Red web dial · Navy leather
For much of the eighteenth century, London was the capital of the watchmaking world. Ideas born in its workshops still run inside almost every mechanical watch made today, ours included.
Slaidburn watches are assembled in England. We think that tradition is worth carrying on.
The father of English clockmaking. His Fleet Street workshop helped make London the centre of the trade.
Invents the lever escapement in London. Refined over two and a half centuries, it still beats inside nearly every mechanical watch, the NH70 included.
His H4 sea watch keeps time across the Atlantic, solving the problem of longitude and changing navigation for good.
Invents the co-axial escapement, widely seen as the most important new escapement since Mudge’s. Omega adopts it in 1999.
A new English watch brand, assembling its watches here and keeping the tradition going.
Every watch is put together in England, from parts made by specialists in Japan and elsewhere.
Every watch in the collection is £300, whichever hero you choose.
Reserve now and you hear before anyone else, with first choice from the opening run.
No payment today. Choose a watch and leave your email; when the collection opens you get first pick and a link to buy. £300 each, or £320 gift-wrapped.
