The History of Watch- and Clock-making in the UK

Yesterday in Parliament, I spoke briefly about the history of watch- and clock-making in the UK. In Harlow, we are very lucky to have one of the last remaining family firms, Eversden E C & Sons.


My full speech follows below:

Robert Halfon (Harlow): I declare a lifelong interest in this subject and refer Members to the Register of Members' Financial Interests. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, because I want to talk about a tale of British craftsmanship at its best, our failure to compete and a remarkable industrial revival.

The automatic watch is almost the same now as when it was invented in 1770 and it has often triumphed over computers. For example, in 1970, after Apollo 13 was crippled by a ruptured oxygen tank, Jack Swigert’s Omega Speedmaster was famously used to time the critical 14-second engine burn, allowing for the crew’s safe return. Even today, the Omega Speedmaster is still the only watch to have been worn on the moon.

Secondly, I wish to discuss British craftsmanship. London led the world, changing the course of history in the 17th century by manufacturing accurate clocks that allowed us to sail throughout the world, trade, make maps and acquire the British empire. British companies such as Smith and Son, George Graham, Josiah Emery, and J. W. Benson forged the first clock-making industry, despite outbreaks of the plague and the great fire of London. Many hon. Members will know the story of John Harrison, a self-educated English clock maker who solved the problem of longitude and was eventually awarded thousands of pounds from Parliament.

Sadly, in the 18th and 19th centuries Britain lost its expertise. The decline of our watch industry is a British parable, just like the tin can.

Mel Stride (Central Devon): My hon. Friend shares with me a love of watches. I know that he is also passionate about apprenticeships, so does he have anything to say about their importance in this area?

Robert Halfon: I will answer my hon. Friend in my later remarks, and I thank him for his intervention.

The decline of our watch industry is a British parable, just like the tin can and the car assembly line: we invent but others capitalise. In 1800, London was producing some 200,000 watches a year, which were exported not just to Europe, but to Russia, the middle east and even China.

However, we became trapped by tradition. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, the Swiss started to make machine-made copies of London clocks and flooded the market with cheap products. Britain responded with protectionism and price controls. We failed to compete, and our expertise was lost to Switzerland, America and even the far east.

However, there has been a revival in recent times. In 1923, the British National Physical Laboratory produced quartz oscillators, and we all know about the production of the atomic caesium clock in 1955. These are the foundation of telecommunications, satellites and space travel. Famous British household names in horology have resurfaced: Dent & Company; and J & T Windmills, which even has a factory in Essex. Today, we have one of the greatest living names in horology, George Daniels, a British man who invented the coaxial escapement, which is the first practical new watch escapement in 250 years; it is a smoother watch movement that almost eradicates friction, and it was commercialised in 1999 by Omega.

Those who have done the most to support this revival in Britain are the British Horological Institute and the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. We have lost out to Switzerland and the far east, but we still have repair shops, a wealth of academic study and some ultra-high-end manufacturing.

So what is to be done? I welcome the Government’s policy on apprenticeships and the work of the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, who is in his place, in his promotion of craft. As I mentioned in my early-day motion 623, our funding for skills qualifications must be open to small specialist courses for industries such as horology.

I strongly welcome what the Government did last year to extend funding for BHI certificates in clock and watch servicing, and repair, and I am grateful to the Leader of the House for his letter of support in that campaign.

However, there is a wider issue to address: many smaller qualifications are being discontinued because they are not profitable enough for awarding bodies. There are now just three horology training facilities in the UK: Birmingham City university; West Dean college; and the British School of Watchmaking. In Harlow, we are very lucky to have the Eversden family of watchmakers, and they show that in an age of digital technology there is still a public demand for the crafts of old.

As George Daniels proved, there is still a demand for British horological genius. I hope that all possible support will be given to the watch-making and clock-making industry, which was once dying but is now showing signs of life in Britain today.

The Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury (Mr Brooks Newmark): I begin by thanking the Chief Whip for indulging me this one time by allowing me to speak. As the House is aware, in the Whips Office we take a vow of silence, so I am particularly pleased to be given this opportunity to respond to Members in the area of business, innovation and skills, and to thank everyone for their excellent contributions.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), who has demonstrated his lifelong interest in horology and has done much to promote that sector. I particularly appreciate his concerns about horology training facilities in the UK and the need for small, specialist courses, and I agree that we must support specialist British industries such as the watch-making and clock-making industry. I add that, although there is a British watch maker called Newmark, we are not related. My hon. Friend rightly cited the importance of the Government’s apprenticeship programme, and I assure him that the Government are exploring the opportunities for the craft sector to engage with the apprenticeship programme.

I have met my hon. Friend the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning to discuss this matter, and he will write to my hon. Friend about the progress that the Government are making to boost craft apprenticeships so that Britain will become the international centre of excellence in horology that he so rightly wants it to be.



by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Revival of British Horology stopped by Quango

Britain used to lead the world in Horology. In the seventeenth and eigtheenth centuries, English clock and watch makers were much in abundance - in the same way that Swiss watchmakers are today. It was John Harrison who solved the problem of Longitude with his Maritime clock. It was the Great Fire of the London that destroyed more than 160 great premises of clockmakers. This and a number of other reasons led to Switzerland gradually overtaking Britain and becoming the centre for great horology: a place it occupies to this day.



In recent years there has been a resurgence of British Horology. English watch maker George Daniels has revolutionised mechanical watch-making by inventing the co-axial escapement that has transformed mechanical watches. This mechanism reduces friction in a watch, ensures greater accuracy and much less need for servicing of the parts. It has been adopted primarily by Omega, and the co-axial escapement is now incorporated in all their automatic watches.

At a different level, the new Joseph and Thomas Windmills Company (named after the two great 17th & 18th Century English horologists of that name), has been established in order to create for the British consumer, an affordable mechanical watch - hand-made in England (albeit with a Swiss movement inside). Windmill watches are displayed in the Clockmakers Museum in London's Guildhall and well worth a look. They all have classic British designs and hark back to our golden era of watch making.

So I was disappointed to see that, despite this modest revival in British Horology, the Skills Funding Agency have arbitrarily cut funding for two key courses in Horology - the only two of its kind in the United Kingdom. This is despite the growing demand for these courses, and the wider interest in horology.

I have tabled a House of Commons Motion opposing this unnecessary and damaging decision:

"That this House is concerned that the funding available for the two accredited qualifications for clock and watchmaking offered by the awarding body EMTA Awards Ltd (EAL) in conjunction with the British Horological Institute have had their funding cut by the Skills Funding Agency with effect from 31 July 2010 without adequate consultation or a proper notice period; is further concerned that there was a very short and inadequately advertised window of opportunity in which to object; notes that there is an existing and growing demand for these qualifications, both from students and the watch and clock service industry; further notes that the cuts in funding could threaten the existence of the last course available in the UK leading to accredited qualifications for training clock and watchmakers at Birmingham City University; believes that this centre of horological excellence provides a unique opportunity to prepare students to service clocks and the rapidly increasing number of hi-tech complicated watches, which is a growth industry; further believes that such niche qualifications in highly specialised trades are valuable to British industry; and calls on the Government to review this decision, in light of the rich and centuries-old tradition of clock and watchmaking in the British Isles, and also in light of the jobs and economic growth offered by the sector.

I have also written to Government Ministers about this and hope to do an Adjournment Debate on supporting British Horology, sometime when the Parliamentary Recess ends. We should be backing the resugence of British Clock and watchmakers - not trying to stifle it.

P.S. For a brief summary of the history British clock and watch making, click on HERE

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com