Schofield signalman web

WOTY 2012: Schofield Signalman DLC GMT PR

Earlier this year WatchPro unveiled its Watches of the Year 2012 – the 10 winning timepieces and 90 highly commended watches that we felt boasted commercial appeal, innovation and had wowed consumers and retailers alike over the past 12 months.

Winner of WatchPro Rising Star of the Year 2012 was the Schofield Signalman DLC GMT PR.

When we first discovered British brand Schofield one autumn afternoon in 2011 we knew we had stumbled across something special. An English watch brand that was all about creating a timepiece of the best quality, with no corners cut or decisions too heavily influenced by budget.

The brand’s founder Giles Ellis oversees every single design, complication and material choice in the manufacture of the Signalman timepieces, having decided to create his own watch after finding that the high street did not quite provide what he was looking for from a timepiece.

After the trials and tribulations that come with launching a brand, Ellis introduced his two debut watches at Salon QP in November last year, instigating a buzz among discerning watch folk.

The essence of the brand is hard to distil into just a paragraph, but the 44mm Signalman GMT, with its matte-black DLC-coated stainless steel case, has made our list despite being limited to just 100 pieces.

This smart watch features a Swiss-made Soprod 9335 automatic movement and has a power reserve of 42 hours. We adore its tactile shape — it is not ashamed to be simple — but also the brand’s finer details such as the shark-skin strap, which is lined with green calf skin leather and the lighthouse engraved on the caseback.

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