If the British independent watchmaking industry is to become greater than the sum of its parts, collaboration between horologists and entrepreneurs like David Brailsford, owner of Garrick, and Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, owner of Fears, will be vital.
Garrick is a ground-up artisan watchmaker, creating its own dials, hands and most movement parts at its Norwich workshop and producing fewer than 80 complete timepieces per year.
Fears is a historic British brand that started life in 1846, was mothballed in 1976, before being revived in 2016 by Mr Bowman-Scargill, the great-great-great-grandson of its founder.
Modern Fears watches are designed and assembled in England using mainly German-made components.
The company makes around 500 watches today but its ambition is to be making and selling over 2,000 per year by 2026, with more of its parts and finished watches made or assembled in the UK.
The idea of Garrick and Fears collaborating on a co-signed watch, designed and made in the UK, first came about during a meeting between Mr Brailsford and Mr Bowman-Scargill in 2018.
It took three years for that idea — code named Project Costa after the name of the coffee shop where the owners met — to come to fruition in the form of a Fears Garrick timepiece that launches today.
“This project isn’t just about the watch. It’s about our friendship and admiration for each other’s achievements. It just had to happen and it’s a match made in heaven,” Mr Brailsford describes.
The feeling is mutual. “It’s been an absolute pleasure working so closely with one of my best friends and combing our two brands DNA in such a perfect way,” Mr Bowman-Scargill concurs.
“Despite everything the past few years has thrown our way we’ve been focused on getting the watch right and I feel it reflects the best of Fears and the best of Garrick,” he adds.
Fears Garrick
The Fears Garrick is a 42mm steel watch housing a version of Garrick’s in house movement, the manually wound UT-G01, which launched in 2017, but with the addition of a power reserve, which sits at 2 o’clock, balancing a small seconds at 10 o’clock and a large aperture exposing Garrick’s signature large balance wheel at 6 o’clock.
The hand-finished movement can be seen through a crystal case back.
It has a white dial with a paper-like matte finish and applied diamond polished numerals, coated in black gold.
Both logos for Fears and Garrick appear at the top of the dial.
Production will be limited to 10 to 15 watches per year, priced at £19,500, including VAT, on a leather strap.
Mr Bowman-Scargill showed the Fears Garrick to WATCHPRO this week and revealed that the first five had been made but four had already been sold.
He also shared that Fears will be moving into new premises in the company’s original home city of Bristol later this year, where it will have a workshop, office space and a retail point of sale.
