Series 4
Designed and made on the Isle of Man
“I had wanted to create an instantaneous triple-calendar wristwatch for some time, but was initially dissuaded by the often difficult-to-read dials.”
“To accommodate this complication, the Series 4 is a slightly larger 41mm cased, manually wound wristwatch displaying hours, minutes, seconds with date, day, month and phase-of-moon complications.”
Series 4
Featuring - hours, minutes, seconds, day, date, month and moon phase
Movement:
- Roger W Smith’s latest single wheel version of the Daniels Co-axial escapement
- Free sprung Quadrajust balance
- 18,000 vibrations per hour
- Raised barrel bridge and balance cock, engraved with a choice of English floral designs
- English finished with frosted and gilded plates
- Gold chatons and flame coloured screws to a purple/blue hue
- Numbered and signed, R.W. Smith - Isle of Man
Dial & Hands:
- A choice of materials can be used to create a unique engraved or engine turned dial and a complementary set of the unique Roger W Smith’s sculpted hands
Case:
- A choice of platinum or 18 carat yellow, red and white golds
- 41mm diameter
- Sapphire crystals to front and rear
Strap & Buckle:
- A leather strap with matching buckle to suit the case material
- Engraved R.W. Smith buckle
Presentation Box:
- An English worked, leather presentation box
Series 4
Roger’s notes
“An uncompromising principle that George Daniels drummed into me as a young man was the importance of clear and simple design. George absolutely hated watches which looked like an Enigma machine… and needed an Alan Turing to work out the time! As we curate the revival of British watchmaking, I believe ‘elegant simplicity’ must be the core of our collective design creed.
So, with the Series 4, celebrating the complexity of the complication wasn’t the quest. The real challenge was to successfully conceal a complex function within a deceptively simply aesthetic, while preserving the primary purpose of a watch - to tell the time in an instant.
The function which had always stumped watchmakers was the date-hand, since this travels and sits over key date information for several days at a time thus compromising the dial’s legibility.
After several years of drawings and experimentation I came up with my new Travelling Aperture, which I believe is the first time this complication has been created. It simply reverses the function, by having the Travelling Aperture orbit the outer edge of the dial, thus removing the need for that problematic hand!
Like George, I think a mark of success for a new complication is to see it adopted by other watchmakers - especially the larger manufacturers, and the eagle eyed collector will have no doubt spotted our travelling aperture being adopted by some major brands.”
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