A unique and unworn Roger Smith Series 1 watch has sold for £660,000 after being auctioned to raise money for a fund to support watchmakers in the UK.
The one-off watch was sold online by A Collected Man, a London-based specialist in the trade of rare watches, with 20% of the proceeds donated to the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers.
The Alliance will use the money to create a Careers Hub that aims to connect horology students with career opportunities.
Only 18 Series 1 watches have ever emerged from the Isle of Man workshop of Roger Smith, and the watchmaker is not currently taking any orders for new pieces.
This made the auction with A Collected Man an unrepeatable opportunity to acquire one of these ultra-rare watches.
The Series 1 created for the project comes in the smaller 38mm white gold version of the case.
It has a silver dial with some subtle changes to look.
The outer chapter has engraved black minute markers. A fluted trench separates it from a second chapter of brushed silver with engraved hour markers.
Further in, the dial is adorned with engine-turned, basket-weave guilloche and at 12 o’clock, a cartouche bears the “R. W. SMITH” mark, engraved in black.
At six o’clock is a large, subsidiary-seconds register decorated with diamond guilloche, circled by drilled, black dots marking the seconds. A slim, white gold seconds’ hand, with the signature pronounced counter-balance, traverses the face of the seconds’ register.
The white gold hour and minute hands feature spade tips, scalloped by hand, much like the rest of the dial.
Roman numerals, usually found on the watchmaker’s dials, have been replaced by batons.