At Timewatcher, we’re always looking to champion British watchmaking. With that in mind we set about creating the ultimate five watch collection using only British watch brands.
The brief was to have a dress watch, a chronograph, a sports watch, a complication and an everyday wear for under a total of £10,000, using as much of the budget as possible. This led to much heated debate, and there were many watches we would love to have included but couldn’t. We will follow this with lists for alternative price points to try to fit them all in, but for now, here’s Timewatcher’s ultimate £10,000 five watch collection from British watch brands.
The Dress Watch: Fears Brunswick Salmon Dial
Fears Brunswick Salmon Dial (Image: Fears)
Fears Brunswick Salmon Dial (Image: Fears)
Fears Brunswick Salmon Dial (Image: Fears)
Fears is one of the oldest family-run watch companies in Britain, tracing it’s history back to 1846. It shut its doors in 1976, before being relaunched in 2016 by Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, the great-great-great-grandson of founder, Edwin Fear. Fears have drawn from their back-catalog of designs and reinvigorated them for the modern world.
The Brunswick Salmon Dial takes its inspiration from a gentleman’s cushion case watch from the Fears archives, first made in 1924, and a dial colour used in the 1940s and 50s. The 38mm cushion-shaped case has no flat surfaces, with even the solid caseback having a gentle sweep. The copper salmon dial is created using galvanic coatings of 18ct rose gold and copper with a delicate vertical brushing.
The Brunswick is powered by a Swiss made, manual winding ETA 7001 movement finished in Britain, with Côtes de Genève striping and Rhodium plating.
The Brunswick is available to order for August 2023, priced at £3,350 from fearswatches.com.
The Chronograph: Studio Underd0g
Studio Underd0g Mint Ch0c Chip (Gen2)
Studio Underd0g Watermel0n (Gen2)
Studio Underd0g Go0fy Panda (Gen2)
Studio Underd0g Desert Sky (Gen2)
Studio Underd0g was founded in 2020 by product design graduate, Richard Benc. His first run of bold, colourful designs sold out almost immediately after he release and quickly beacme a favourite among enthusiasts and influencers.
Based on the Seagull ST-190, the range of four Studio Underd0g models are hand-wound chronographs and their unique colour schemes caught the industry by surprise. Studio Underd0g are now assembling and inspecting their watches in the UK and are working with The Strap Tailor, David Richards, to supply the watches on UK handmade straps.
It’s great to see Studio Underd0g moving what they can to the UK and still maintaining an utterly reasonable price of £500. What’s more, these are not made of permanent unobtanium. Despite selling out immediately, their solution has been a pre-order resupply model, where sales are open for a limited time window. They take as many orders as they can in the window, then distribute them out over the coming months as quickly as their production allows (currently around 500 per month). This is a great model to see and I hope we see other brands adopting it in future.
The current resupply production run goes through to February 2024, so if you can be patient, avoid paying double the price on the grey market and support Richard on the next run.
More information at underd0g.com.
The Complication: Christopher Ward Bel Canto
Christopher Ward Bel Canto (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward Bel Canto (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward Bel Canto (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward Bel Canto (Image: Christopher Ward)
The Christopher Ward Bel Canto took the industry by complete surprise when it was released in 2022. A ‘Sonnerie au Passage’striking hours complication, from a 60 piece in-house module on a Sellita SW200-1 base, and all the crazy stylings of an MB&F, for around £3,000. It was, quite rightly, out of stock before you could blink. Thankfully more are coming and in a range of new colours. Our pick is the sunray ‘Rosa’ gold version, but it is also available in a powder blue (Cielo), pink / purple (Viola) or black (Nero). Pre-orders are available now for delivery in February 2024, priced at £2,995 on leather or £3,305 on a titanium bracelet at christopherward.com.
The Sports Watch: Chrisopher Ward’s The Twelve
Christopher Ward The Twelve (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward The Twelve (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward The Twelve (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward The Twelve (Image: Christopher Ward)
Christopher Ward The Twelve (Image: Christopher Ward)
We debated whether to include two watches in the list from the same brand, but this is more testament to the amazing run Christopher Ward has been on over the last year. First they delivered a high complication for under £3,000 with the Bel Canto. They then followed that almost straight away with The Twelve – showing that Genta-inspired luxury sports watches don’t need to come with an inflated price tag (yes, we’re looking at you IWC).
Christopher Ward hit all the boxes for a Genta-inspired, stainless steel sports watch and were not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve. Tapisery-style dial, slim angular case, multiple facets and finishes, integrated faceted bracelet – the Twelve delivers them all but at a remarkable £1,050 price point on a bracelet ( £850 on a rubber strap or £1,595 in titanium). Given the level of engineering and finishing that goes into the case and bracelet this is quite an achievement.
You can pre-order The Twelve now for September 2023 at christopherward.com
The Daily Wear: Farer Lander IV GMT
Farer Lander IV GMT (Image: Farer)
Farer Lander IV GMT (Image: Farer)
Farer Lander IV GMT (Image: Farer)
Farer Lander IV GMT (Image: Farer)
For a daily wear you are looking for a watch that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion, is sensibly sized and comfortable to wear, and also has a dial you won’t get bored looking at. The Farer Lander IV fits all those criteria, with the added bonus of a GMT function for the jet set lifestyle we all have.
The Lander IV has a striking sea green sunray triple step dial, with Super-LumiNova Arabic numerals outlined in astronaut silver. It is powered by the top grade Sellita SW330-2 movement with 56 hours power reserve, visible through a display caseback.
At 39.5mm wide. 45mm lug-to-lug and 10.8mm thick, it should be a comforatable wear for almost any wrist and looks great on strap or bracelet.
The Farer Lander IV is £1,225.00 at farer.com.
There’s a Little Cash to Spare: Mr. Jones Watches
Number Cruncher from Mr. Jones Watches (Image: Mr. Jones)
The Ascendent from Mr. Jones Watches (Image: Mr. Jones)
Beam Me Up! from Mr. Jones Watches (Image: Mr. Jones)
The Silent Thief from Mr. Jones Watches (Image: Mr. Jones)
Ricochet from Mr. Jones Watches (Image: Mr. Jones)
Depending on your material and bracelet choices you may have a little cash to spare from your £10,000, so do yourself a favour and get a Mr. Jones watch – maybe even two.
Mr. Jones watches collaborate with a huge range of designers from different fields to incorporate their designs into watch form. You’ll find a wide array of complications being used to complement the design with timekeeping, though reading time is not the primary aim of a Mr. Jones watch. They are little pieces of joy on a strap.
Available at mrjoneswatches.com.
