The apprenticeship was denied by the master who worked alone, but Daniels invited Smith to come visit him at his workshop, where he was presented with a 19th century watchmaker’s lathe – Smith’s first tool that would help him complete his own watch. In a post-script published in Daniels’ memoir, All in Good Time, Smith writes “That evening, my eyes and mind were opened to an area of horology that I, and indeed no one else there, had had any insight into before – a new world that had been created entirely by George Daniels.” Reading and re-reading Daniels’ Watchmaking further inspired Smith to create a watch by hand, and he wrote to Daniels on the Isle of Man asking for an apprenticeship. A lecture in his final year at the Manchester School of Horology offered an opportunity for Roger to encounter George Daniels for the first time. At 16, he applied to either woodworking or watchmaking school, and was accepted to the latter first. Smith, OBE, found focus and reward in practical things early in life. It was with this watch that Roger Smith became George Daniels’ only apprentice, anointed to continue Daniels’ legacy beyond his lifetime.īorn in the former mill town of Bolton, outside of Manchester, Roger W. The painstaking, years-long creation of Pocket Watch Number 2 is a poetic tribute to one man’s absolute focus in the pursuit of his chosen trade. Arguably then, the renaissance of English watchmaking in the 21st century would have been stilted, or at least its most proficient scion would have never been. Without the completion of this watch, and its acceptance by George Daniels, there would be no Roger Smith brand. Roger Smith’s Pocket Watch Number 2 epitomizes a “make or break” moment for both Roger himself and subsequently for contemporary English watchmaking. SmithIn recent memory, there has been no other singular watch known to have completely defined the life of a renowned watchmaker. “It's the most important watch I've made,
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