Union tick

He’s not wrong. Seeing a UK brand take on the likes of Bulgari and Tudor, who were both nominated in the Petite Aiguille category, and win, was a wonderful moment, but the GPHG is an industry event, and, unlike the Oscars, not something promoted to those outside the watch world. However, there are signs that Brits are gaining recognition in a wider context; but not necessarily on home soil, as Giles Ellis, owner of Sussex’s Schofield Watch Company observes: “I think the scene is better understood from abroad,” he says. “By those that look at us as a collective. Many American owners of Schofield may also have a Pinion or Vertex, a Christopher Ward or Fears.”

For Fears’ fourth-generation managing director Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, just being British isn’t enough. “Some believed that coming from the UK is all you need to get people to take notice, which isn’t right,” he says. “Being a British watch company does give you a point of difference but it’s what you do that makes it relevant.”

But what can be leveraged out of the British ‘brand’? It’s complicated. Whereas Switzerland has an infrastructure that allows brands to claim they are ‘Swiss made’ – a phrase synonymous with quality and pedigree – few UK brands can claim that. Even Bremont, with its new manufacturing facility, The Wing, still relies on parts from other countries because we don’t have the ecosystem here.

Brands based in Britain, according to the 2021 KPMG survey, would like to invest in home-grown businesses but the suppliers who meet the requisite demands of cost and quality aren’t available. There’s also the accusations of ‘Brit-washing’.

If companies that are registered in the UK promote themselves as British, there are bound to be mutterings from purists who are keen to point out where they manufacture and where the parts come from. It doesn’t matter that the majority of the design happens in the UK and therefore the IP is British, the pedantic view is if you’re not making or assembling here, you’re not British.

“We totally reject this,” says William Brackfield, designer at Christopher Ward. “Our aesthetic ethos – as well as the philosophy of our brand – is British. The way we mix tradition and modernity, and our ability to innovate at speed could only have come from the UK. We have a point to prove!”

Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Perhaps the idea shouldn’t be creating a British watchmaking scene that competes with the Swiss but rather forging an identity that is recognised globally without the pressure to compete on that scale or a reliance on a pedantic definition of what a British brand actually is. Just as, after the once world-renowned UK watchmaking industry disappeared in the 1970s, we relied on those self-taught mavericks to keep the candle burning, we should be looking to their 21st century compatriots – think Studio Underd0g, Struthers, Fears, and Schofield.

As Bowman-Scargill says, “British watch brands distinguish themselves through a steadfast commitment to heritage, craftsmanship, and storytelling.”

For Peter Ellis, co-founder of Chistopher Ward, the success of CW, Bremont and other brands is genuine and should be celebrated. “Events like British Watchmakers’ Day show how far the industry has come and how deep the foundations are. There’s no reason why UK horology can’t take its place at watchmaking’s top table once again – the world is watching!”