This autumn’s Sotheby’s Geneva Important Watches is living up to its name by offering the opportunity to buy watches made by George Daniels and his apprentice turned master watchmaker Roger W Smith.
The British watchmakers and former colleagues are widely considered two of the world’s greatest of the 20th and 21st century.
It includes an almost mythical Millennium series watch, completed in 2001, which was Roger Smith’s own watch and the only timepiece ever made in the workshop that carries both the Daniels London and RW Smith marques on the dial.
It was given by Mr Daniels to his apprentice in lieu of a bonus in 2001, and he wore it for almost a decade before selling it privately to raise capital for what was at the time a fledgling watch business under his own name.
The second watch crossing the block in Geneva is the very first Co-Axial Anniversary watch produced by Roger Smith in 2012, the year after the death of Mr Daniels.
Notably, work started on the watch before he died.
Both use the George Daniels created Co-Axial escapement, which is considered one of the greatest advances in accurate mechanical watchmaking of the 20th century.
Sotheby’s is selling the watches as individual lots at Part I of its Fall auctions taking place in person and online on November 5.
Owning the two watches is the chance to chronologically follow the evolution of Mr Daniels’ and Mr Smith’s watchmaking in their workshop on the Isle of Man.
The Mr Daniels famously designed and manufactured virtually every component of his watches from scratch; a method that Mr Smith has adhered to ever since.
The Millennium watch in the Sotheby’s sale was only ever sold once, privately by Roger W Smith, to the current owner in 2008.
The Co-Axial Anniversary watch, was made for the same collector and delivered to him in 2012.
“These two watches hold so many memories and represent so much of my early career and my relationship with George Daniels, the mentor who was, and continues to be, such an inspiration to me,” says Mr Smith.
“They are the perfect bookending to my story with George, with one, the Millennium, representing the very first watch model I produced under his exacting tutelage when I was still a little green; and the other, over ten years later, the very first watch from the Co-Axial Anniversary series.
“I designed and created this watch on my own for George – a statement of my own growth and skills, like the completion of my apprenticeship with him.
“And to know that there is only one George Daniels timepiece ever double signed by him, my name is on it and it’s the first wristwatch model I ever created, makes this Millennium watch even more special,” Mr Smith describes.
Both are in pristine condition, according to Sotheby’s.
The Millennium watch in white gold has a headline grabbing and extremely conservative estimate of $1 million.
The Co-Axial Anniversary watch in yellow gold is also priced to attract multiple bidders with an estimate of $546,000.
