Roger Smith’s first watch to be sold by auction directly from the watchmaker to a member of the public has raised £600,000, or more.
Until now, every single watch Roger Smith has made had been commissioned by clients and none had ever been offered for direct sale.
The unique Series watch was made to raise awareness and money for the Alliance of British Clock and Watchmakers and its British Watchmakers’ Day (BWD), which took place earlier in March.
An undisclosed “chunk of the profit” from the sale will be donated to the Alliance, Mr Smith promised in an article for WatchPro ahead of BWD.
The hammer dropped on the auction at 3pm during the British Watchmakers’ Day, and Mr Smith then took to Instagram to announce that the watch had sold for “well over double its original reserve price of £295,000”.
“What an amazing way to finish a historic day for me, the Alliance and for our British watchmaking sector,” he declared.
Mr Smith describes the timepiece as “The Series 1 watch I would make for myself”.
He adds: “Over the years, all the commissions for my Series of watches have been made with a modest customisation in their design to give my clients unique variations. The opportunity with this piece was to make what I wanted, and to have some fun!”
The time-only Series 1 was made in a 38mm red-gold case. It has a mixed metal dial with a silver engine-turned background inset with red-gold chapters.
“The movement which, as ever is driven by the single-wheel co-axial escapement has my traditional English finish with gilded frosted plates and gold chatons” explains Mr Smith.
“I went back to my sketches and worked with our engraver to create the resulting English rose pattern on the barrel bridge. It really is my ideal vision for the Series 1.”
George would be proud!