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Scottish Watches Podcast #760 : British Watchmakers Day 2026 – What Happened
00:47:34
The UK’s biggest celebration of modern horology is back, and in this episode, we’re taking you inside every corner of it. We’re talking about the third edition of British Watchmakers’...
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- [00:01]
Hamish
Welcome to the Scottish Watches Podcast.
- [00:02]
Ricky
This episode is all about British Watchmakers Day. Who was there, what we saw, the
- [00:06]
Hamish
brands that were in attendance, the new releases that came out and the folks we met along the way. Dave, how are you doing?
- [00:12]
Dave
Dave is good. Dave is recovering or recovered. Is recovered the right word? Yes, I think recovered now fully from what was a pretty intense day at British Watchmakers Day. I think it's just getting bigger and
- [00:23]
Hamish
better and instead of us giving you the intro and the spiel, we are going to drag somebody on who's instrumental in creating the show. She is in charge of creating the. Funnily enough, it's Katya from the alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers. How are you doing?
- [00:35]
Katya
Hello, everyone. I'm doing great. It's slightly manic before the event, of course, but everything's going to plan so far, so I'm happy.
- [00:42]
Ricky
Good. Now, this is the third event we missed last year. Everybody knows the story there. The first one was amazing. I heard last year was good. This one is going to be probably the best. It's the hat trick, the triple will. But what is different? What are we going to be expecting to see?
- [00:55]
Katya
Well, we're in the same venue, but we've got more people coming as we have three ticket sessions now. Last two years there was, you know, difficult for us because there were a lot of people on the waiting list and this year we thought, well, we'll get an extra session in. So now I've got another about 600 of you coming, which is absolutely amazing. We sold out the event. We've got more watch brands this year, 48 this time. We're celebrating a few birthdays tomorrow. One is our chairman, Roger W Smith's business, 25 years of the business. And to commemorate this, our first artist in residence, Sophie Scott Lewis, has drawn this incredible drawing of Roger W.M. smith, series six.
- [01:38]
Ricky
And where could we see that?
- [01:40]
Katya
You can see it on my T shirt. I think the slogan isn't quite right.
- [01:44]
Ricky
Not quite.
- [01:44]
Katya
It says, one watch at a time. Don't follow that. Ok, no need.
- [01:48]
Ricky
All the watches at a time.
- [01:49]
Katya
All the watches at the time. Just come in, get your wallet out and spend your money on watches. You can't go wrong.
- [01:55]
Ricky
But there's also a few other anniversaries with Roger himself and the greater Ella Mann. It was a hundred years since George Daniels was born. If he'd continued to live. And there's a few other things behind the scenes. Coaxial escapements coming up for an anniversary, but fears they're doing 10 years, yes.
- [02:10]
Katya
Fears are celebrating as well tomorrow and I think they've got something happening there. Do they? You'll find out tomorrow.
- [02:18]
Ricky
Good, good.
- [02:20]
Katya
What else? Well, it'll be an epic day again, I think. I think it's not raining. That's very important as well.
- [02:26]
Ricky
That is good for the queues outside tomorrow. And if people want to come along next year, because it is going to happen again, join the alliance, become a club member. You can join from anywhere in the world. You don't have to be a resident in the uk, you don't have to stay in the uk, you can travel. Because how many people come across in planes, trains, automobiles? They come to the event, they enjoy London, they enjoy the uk. And this is the best show in the UK by a country mile. And a lot of other shows have just disappeared, fallen by the wayside. This one's getting bigger and bigger. Listen to this podcast and get your arse long next year.
- [02:53]
Katya
See you all tomorrow.
- [02:55]
Hamish
Right, Dave, you've been there the past three years. Last year, obviously, I was getting married. I had better things to do. I know that is heresy and blasphemy to say so, but, you know, these things happen once in a lifetime. What exactly is the change? Because you've seen it. Year one, where I thought everybody was a little bit apprehensive, fresh behind the ears. They didn't know exactly what to expect, what to do. So the brands were kind of a bit glitzy. We were a little bit on edge as well. This time around. It seemed very, very simple, basic, easy. People were taking in their stride, Water off a duck's back, all that kind of jazz. But how did you see the progression?
- [03:26]
Dave
So obviously, as you mentioned, year one was the first outing of the show, so everyone was maybe apprehensive is the wrong word. Maybe they were a wee bit, like, unsure of was it going to be the success they hoped it was going to be. And for sure, it definitely was. Everyone loved it. There was a great crowd there. It's the first time that someone's done a British focused watchmaking event in a long, long time. And it really kind of went well. Year two, for me, I think one of the bigger challenges in year two was, well, is the second album going to be as good as the first album? And it turned out well, indeed, it definitely was. If not, it was better. But there was the limited edition releases that came into that. And one brand played big and hard when it came to the whole limited edition release, which meant that the first session had a large queue waiting to get in to grab this watch, which when the doors opened, you had this kind of queue that was snaking through the event hall, all lining up to get this watch. Of course, you'd never quite sure how to do or deal with that kind of release, but it didn't have a negative impact. But it did have an impact on the show, maybe on the kind of way that people flowed around the show whilst they were trying to cut in through this line.
- [04:32]
Hamish
I hate it when people cut lines, Dave. Especially on the kitchen table.
- [04:35]
Dave
Yeah. I mean, it depends where they cut them and how they cut them. You know, watch out, don't use those
- [04:40]
Hamish
glass surfaces in toilets, especially those fat lines. They can really get you.
- [04:43]
Dave
Indeed. So, yes, they didn't do the releases in the way that they had done them previously. There were still lots of limited editions that were specifically for the show, but it just felt a bit more relaxed, a bit more easygoing. The flow was good, I think, because they had split up into three kind of sessions rather than the two. Quick observation of how it was once we were an hour into the show, just altogether a more chilled, easygoing feeling, which in my opinion, as I said, is a good thing.
- [05:14]
Hamish
Jumping year one to year three. I echo your sentiments. I think it was phenomenal and I would say it was like there was a tap or a valve for the amount of people that were going to be coming in, because I think they could only have 600 attendees within the area for fire safety, those kind of health safety regulations that were in place. And it worked tremendously well because there was a peak just as people came in and then it slowly tailed off until the next batch of people came in. So it was never too much and it was never too little. But it also gave the brand and the people that work at the stands, which you know all about working at. Raj, it's chaos from start to finish. And if there is just a thunderous queue of people at the one time too many and then it's super quiet, it doesn't really work because you can't get to people. People get disgruntled, they want to speak to you, they want to talk about new releases. This was just the perfect containment with that pressure release valve running all throughout the day. But I'll give you a quick run
- [06:03]
Ricky
through of what we were up to
- [06:04]
Hamish
because we missed it last year, myself and the wife, because we were getting hitched one year anniversary, we decided to come down to London early. So we got down well. We actually left on Wednesday, didn't arrive until Thursday morning and the drive down was quite interesting. Wore a couple of different watches. I wore my farm, the Sword. She wore her Astroworks, the Disney release that came out quite recently. We decided to go digital. On the way down we actually spotted some crazy stuff. When we pulled in to refuel the car, we saw a helicopter in wrapping. Gift wrapping. A gift wrapped helicopter. We thought Dave's birthday had come too soon. But no, it wasn't to be. We got a good night's sleep. Although we only got into the hotel maybe one or two in the morning. And then the next day before the chaos was to unfold, I actually took a detour. It was nothing to do with British watches. I popped down to see Pietro. Have you seen his new place yet?
- [06:47]
Dave
Yeah, Pietro's place, which is, well, a cute name and it definitely works. He has spent well the last many years establishing his business within the uk, but it was based just outside London and he would visit London to meet up with clients. But they have their own dedicated space now in the centre of London. It's a beautiful space, it's by appointment only, but they're going to be there most of the time, so you should be able to get an appointment at super short notice if you want to go in. But it's gorgeous, beautiful space. I also clocked that when they put some of their initial pictures of the space up onto the Instagrams once they launched it, there was some well well known faces on a big screen that were being played, which did make me chuckle somewhat. But yeah, great to see Pietro doing that. You get in to see it as well. What were your thoughts on it?
- [07:29]
Hamish
And this is completely self funded. A lot of people get into the watch game and they have got big financial backers behind the scenes paying for everything, which means they go a little bit fast and loose because it's not their money they're playing with. Pietro has reinvested over the past decade, plus one year as it happened just now, and you walk in and the area is just phenomenally laid out. It's massive, it's expansive, but it's also quite condensed because you'll get different segments. You've got a museum area with some of the previous limited edition releases that they have created themselves with their partners. You've got a couch area, you've got a private viewing area, you've got the office and studio area. It's all laid out really nicely and there's going to be some really cool events coming out because they've only done a soft launch. They're Going to do the proper one later on the year. Who knows, we might actually be doing something with them around about that time. But it was phenomenal popping in, seeing Sam, Pietro and the team because they still had the builders in, they still had the architect there who's a personal friend of Pietro, who was organizing and designing and placing stuff. And we took a bit of pride of place on the wall in the timeline and trajectory. They've actually got it marked down when the first time the limited edition were on the Scottish Watches podcast, that was pretty cool to see. And as part of my visit into the city centre of London, I had to locate a birthday cake for Simona and Sam and myself tried four different places, phoning round, visiting a couple of them to find out. It is almost impossible to find birthday cakes in the centre of London on short notice.
- [08:52]
Ricky
Although we did get something that was
- [08:53]
Hamish
nearly quite as good. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see how that one plays out. And then Thursday night, it was our anniversary, her birthday. We actually ended up on a yacht in London at nighttime, which was phenomenal for dinner and it wasn't crazy expensive because she's Eastern European and I'm Scottish, which means we don't like spending money.
- [09:10]
Dave
Dave, really? That comes as a shock. But yes. You say yacht, do you mean a motor launch on the Thames? I don't think you were yachting on the Thames quite. But was it a little kind of motor yacht you were on?
- [09:21]
Ricky
It's not the kind of motorboating I'm
- [09:23]
Hamish
known for, but no, it was a big beastie. It was like a big cruise ship type thing and we had food on it. There are some pictures. I shall post some pictures. There will be some pictures in the show notes. Show notes.
- [09:31]
Ricky
Forgot to tell you about those.
- [09:32]
Hamish
Mezze Eloquella's show notes. Click the link. Your podcast player. Click the Link in the YouTube description. In this video you'll be able to see all the watches, all the cool stuff, all the links to all the brands that we speak about, all the brands we got to see. But yeah, all the details were in there. But you've heard enough about me and Dave rattling on for a while. It's time to speak to somebody else who knows what we're talking about. And that person is rich from Studio Underdog.
- [09:52]
Ricky
What's happening?
- [09:53]
Rich
What's happening? So it's setup day today, so this is calm before the storm. I've just rocked up. My team are super busy at the moment setting up probably one of our biggest stands to date. I'm slightly late, I must admit. I went for a couple of gimlets with our friend Nicholas. So, yeah, it's slightly his fault.
- [10:10]
Ricky
Okay. But I hear that Ric Flair's heading over. No, the nature boy, no.
- [10:16]
Rich
Oh, the nature boy, very good. Okay. Sorry, that was lost on me.
- [10:19]
Ricky
You're not as old as I am. Yeah, but you're doing something with grass greenery. Forestry Commission, mate. Come in, have a wee look later on.
- [10:26]
Rich
Yeah, we have. So a month or two ago, we lugged our head of assembly up a hill down on the south coast. And so we've decided to instead now bring that hill to central London. So we've got a fun little assembly activation going on.
- [10:42]
Ricky
So if the hill doesn't come to
- [10:43]
Hamish
you, you go to the hill.
- [10:45]
Rich
Correct.
- [10:45]
Hamish
Right, okay.
- [10:46]
Ricky
Got it.
- [10:46]
Dave
Yes, yes.
- [10:47]
Ricky
Good. So what are you doing? What's he doing?
- [10:48]
Hamish
What are we doing? Why are you doing this?
- [10:50]
Ricky
Is it like some new watchmaker that's joined your company?
- [10:52]
Rich
Sort of. Sort of, or quite a few new watchmakers, I'd say. So at the end of last year, we sort of brought our assembly process in house. We did that through acquiring the company that we've worked with the last five years, who assemble all our watches. So now we're able to sort of, I guess, champion this message a little bit more. And most importantly, we want to be able to invite the community to come and assemble their own watches. So the plan is to open the doghouse towards the end of May, and this here at British Watchmakers Day is a little bit of a taster, so hopefully people will be. Will be coming along to do some hand setting. I'd welcome you to come and do the same.
- [11:31]
Ricky
Well, funnily enough, there is a thing happening this year that people don't really know about. We've been discussing where we're going to be doing Scottish watches on tour. Starting in Scotland, working our way down the country, popping off, visiting all our friends on the way, and then culminating the end of the tour down in
- [11:46]
Hamish
London with a big hurrah.
- [11:48]
Ricky
So we'll definitely pop in and see if we can assemble something. Maybe a little bit edgy, lots of caffeine, lots of Red Bulls in the way, but that sounds fantastic. And anything else we should be looking at maybe in the next coming months?
- [11:58]
Rich
In the coming months. I mean, this is our big focus. So in the coming months from May, when we open the doghouse, people will be able to assemble a doghouse limited edition, which is going to be the guava. So that's going to be A lot of fun. Other than that. We've just launched with our friends at Time and Tide, our pizza watches, which are a lot of fun.
- [12:14]
Ricky
You left them in too long.
- [12:16]
Rich
We did. We did. We left one of them in too long. One is cooked to perfection.
- [12:19]
Hamish
Okay.
- [12:20]
Rich
Aside from that, a few more exciting things towards the end of the year, but my lips are sealed for the time being.
- [12:25]
Ricky
Any more imported clones appearing in funny places you want to start? There are.
- [12:30]
Rich
There are. I think towards the end of last year, I put up on my Instagram. I think I'd collected nine copycats from different brands. I believe that should be up to 11 in the coming weeks. We've had our first clone of a pizza watch, which is dead.
- [12:44]
Ricky
Nobody.
- [12:45]
Rich
Yeah, that exists. So that'll be. That'll be in my collection along with the others. So. No, it's. It's continues to be a great compliment.
- [12:52]
Hamish
Brilliant.
- [12:53]
Ricky
And we look forward to next time you post sniping the snipers that buy your watches and then sell them on ebay for astronomical amounts of profit. And you just go in and. Vito de Sale. We're always keeping an eye.
- [13:02]
Rich
We're always keeping an eye. It's the. Sometimes the most fun days in the office that we've had Magnus and I just snooping through the Internet pretending to be Hercule Poirot. It's a lot of fun.
- [13:13]
Hamish
Brilliant.
- [13:14]
Ricky
Well, thanks for joining us. Good luck with the show. You won't need it and we'll catch you again soon.
- [13:17]
Rich
Thank you very much.
- [13:18]
Dave
And then, of course, it was Friday and I headed down on the Friday morning. I got that red eye. Early morning flight.
- [13:24]
Hamish
Usually pink eye you would get.
- [13:26]
Dave
Well, no, not pink eye in this situation. Definitely not the red eye flight. It was a foggy morning and we had a foggy takeoff where everyone was being shouted at by the crew to turn their phones off. No, no, not off. Off. Off. As it turns out, some people don't understand what the word off means. But anyway, we got in there eventually and I got down to London. I had some workage things to do, so I kind of ensconced myself in a hotel room for most of the day, I have to say. But then later that evening, I was heading off to the Studio Underdogs party, which was taking place on the Friday night. Ricky was meant to have come along to it, but unfortunately got tied up with something el he had to do as well. But Friday was a day of work. And then a very nice event in the evening with Studio Underdog.
- [14:11]
Hamish
That was your Friday. My Friday Started off meeting up with Nicholas Bowman Scargo from the Fears Watch Company. I was wearing my Fears Watch. Simone was wearing something or other. I can't remember what she was wearing. Don't really care. And it was the confetti edition, I think. I asked him and he said there are only three of them in the UK because the majority of them went across to Topper Jewelers over in the States. Because the story rotates around what happened over there. I spent Friday recording all the segments that you've already heard a couple of, and you're going to hear a few more of throughout this episode because that's the day that supposedly Quiet didn't appear to be quiet, when people were building stands and there was hammers and all kinds of stuff going off in the background. But it was certainly quieter than what happened on the Saturday. So, yes, went around, caught up with this person, that person, Simona appeared on the British watchmaker's Instagram page because she got one of the Roger Smith T shirts. And then we went out for a bite to eat at nighttime with some of the organizers just to get a little bit more of a lay of the land of what exactly was going to be happening the following day. And since we mentioned Nick, we should probably hear from him as well.
- [15:07]
Ricky
Okay, let's kick things off with Nicholas Bowmanscaro from the Fierce Watch Company. How are you doing?
- [15:12]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
I'm really good. Really good, thank you.
- [15:14]
Ricky
Ten years.
- [15:15]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
Ten years. Can you believe it? My goodness, I'm making me feel old now.
- [15:18]
Hamish
Well, you were telling me there's another
- [15:19]
Ricky
anniversary coming up next year. We won't talk about that too much. We're here to talk about what's happening for British Watchmakers Day, potentially. What's happening with Fears in your. I don't know, how many. Is it 180 years?
- [15:29]
Hamish
Is it 10 years?
- [15:29]
Ricky
A combination of the two.
- [15:30]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
What's difficult, having two anniversaries.
- [15:32]
Hamish
Yeah.
- [15:33]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
So, yeah, I mean, 180th anniversary, anniversary of my great, great, great grandfather first starting the business. But also significantly and particularly important to myself is 10 years since I left Rolex and brought my family's business back to life.
- [15:45]
Ricky
Well, we're not going to go into too much detail on that because I know we've got a full episode dedicated to the life and times of the Bowman Scargos. Well, maybe more than one, maybe more than you've told me that this year is going to be massive all the way through, so we won't be able
- [15:59]
Hamish
to cram everything into just 60 minutes or less.
- [16:02]
Ricky
But what are you doing for Watchmakers Day?
- [16:03]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
Well, it's great to be back for the third British Watchmakers Day and as per the previous two, we have a British Watchmaker's Day exclusive. So a watch built just for the show. Like previous years, it is a sterling silver fierce piece. So a unique reference. This year we've gone with a slimmer Brunswick 40 case, but rather than it having a sportier automatic, we've gone with a new manual movement and a dial and handset which is recreating the original watch that Edwin Phear made 180 years ago as his first pocket watch. So it's linking very much back to that significant anniversary.
- [16:40]
Ricky
And a little birdie was telling me that you're no longer linked to the past.
- [16:44]
Hamish
Something you're trying to do with the
- [16:46]
Ricky
fear's DNA is to incorporate new things, not always do legacy.
- [16:50]
Hamish
So this seems to be stretching in both directions.
- [16:52]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
Oh, very much so. So we have certain, certain things where we're very much going, we're forward looking, but we have this incredible history, this incredible heritage. So rather than this year doing lots of anniversary additions, we decided to put it all together in one, which is this watch for this occasion. So really kicking off the year with something very strong.
- [17:12]
Hamish
Good.
- [17:13]
Ricky
And should people keep an eye on you throughout the rest of the year?
- [17:15]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
I hope so, absolutely. It's as you said, you're not giving
- [17:18]
Ricky
much game away here.
- [17:19]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
No, no, I don't. You know, I need a couple of martinis in me first. It's, yeah, it's an incredible year. I mean, Fierce over the last few years has had huge growth and with this year we're really excited about what we've got launching. We've also got our new workshop going into our new head office in Bristol. We've just moved into the new head office looking to grow the boutiques we have. It's, yeah, it's an exciting year in all different directions.
- [17:42]
Hamish
You're just going to have to tune
- [17:43]
Ricky
in for the full episode. Well, thank you. I'll let you get on because there's a lot of setup.
- [17:46]
Hamish
We're recording these day ahead.
- [17:48]
Ricky
Good luck with the show.
- [17:48]
Nicholas Bowman Scargo
Thank you very much. Thank you.
- [17:50]
Dave
So Saturday was of course the day of the show. The show opening at 10:00am and running through to 7:00pm, split into, as we mentioned previously, these three different kind of sessions. Well, I was up early, got some breakfast. Well, a big hearty breakfast because it's a day where, well, you suddenly feel hungry. Well, we did address that later in the Saturday, but I got There just after, around about 9 o' clock in the morning to get in early before the hordes of people that were already queuing outside. Luckily it was a dry day, but they were already around the block arrived and we got in to have a look around and get a lay of the land in the show. Of course, all of the exhibitors were, well, just making the final polishing touches to their booth. We got around to say a quick hello to many of the folk because as unfortunately often happens, it gets so busy during the day that sometimes you don't even get a chance to say two words to them and you don't want to interrupt them when they're in full flow talking to, of course, well, money spending customers. So, yep, that was the start of my Saturday. Really enjoyed it. Ricky, you managed to rock in, I think around about half past nine. You had seen a bit of the lay of the land the day before, but you were in round about 9:30, ready to go.
- [18:55]
Hamish
Yeah, you're right. We were staying in a hotel on the same street, which makes life a lot easier when you're transporting camera, AV equipment, all that kind of stuff to an event. And we got in, we recorded a
- [19:04]
Ricky
little bit of this, a little bit
- [19:05]
Hamish
of that, got a little bit of the cues. Gav was going to be turning up later on with his buddy Graham, and Graham turned up with one of our Nessie limited editions from last year, the one that has a mother repair dial. And that was just phenomenal. We did a cool wrist check at the end with the Scottish watches logo that was on the sign. But as I mentioned earlier, it was just a more cohesive, regimented way of running a show. People turned up at the right time, they entered. There was no messing around at the front, people weren't causing a fuss. Everything just went like clockwork. For a watch and clock show, that is exactly what you want met. Tons of people, can't remember them all. Couple of them have emailed in because I did say drop me a message because I forget who you are. But every so often we were just walking along, me, you, sometimes together, sometimes individually checking things out. And fans of the show would come over to have a chat about this, that and the other, talk about episodes they've loved, talk about, things they want to see us talk about in the future and to show us what they were wearing on the day. One of the guys, Brendan, who we've met a number of times before, he actually had a list on his phone of the watches that he was looking to purchase on the day and he'd already scored quite a lot of them off. So this wasn't just a looky looky show, this was a come along, check it out, put it in the wrist and if you like it, buy it there and then show. Quite a lot of people were taking orders for certain things and most of the time you could actually just grab them there then either put it on the wrist, keep it in a bag and get the hell out of Dodge. Notable Mentions Jez, who we are working with on a plan to record a live show. He turned up. He made even though there was some family difficulties. The night before we met Jeff, the guy that runs Formula E who was on the show recently, he was Herbert Son and he double wristed it in spectacular fashion. You'll see pictures of that in the show notes. And then as I mentioned, obviously Gav turned up to help with the video. Has made Graham Sarah the Duchess of watches. There was just tons and tons. You want to name check a few people.
- [20:47]
Dave
There was lots of other content creators out there, some from Instagram, some from YouTube. Of course we had, well, the infamous Adrian from Barking Jack. He was there with his little stand and of course the coffee. That was more than a savior. On a couple of occasions I met up with Jamie, a customer who'd actually bought, well, one of those watches from that company that I work for. He'd bought it and he came to show me it and it was a very nice watch as well. So got to talk to him, got to talk to many people that I've only ever dealt with through my work remotely and they happened to be at the show looking at all the wares from the brands that were there as well and also having a chat with me. Outside of that, there was Sophie. She came over from Switzerland. I think she's actually British but lives in Switzerland, so she does a lot of content on the Instagrams. She was over at the show doing her thing as well. We met Lucy, of course. Lucy has been on the podcast many times and is currently working with Polin.
- [21:36]
Hamish
Hope her allergies don't kick in.
- [21:38]
Dave
Lots of other people. I'm having a complete mind meltdown in terms of the number of names of people that we caught up with. But it's always great when people come up and they're talking to us about the show, the fact that they listen to it, the fact that they enjoy it. There was also a few people who came up and showed us watches and said, I only bought this watch. I've never even heard of the Brand. I listened to the podcast and I heard all about it and I thought I would do a deep dive and then they ended up buying one as well. So maybe actually us talking nonsense about watches actually influences people. I don't like that phrase. But anyway, apparently we are some kind of influencers to some people. I don't advise taking our advice, to be honest, too seriously, but outside of that, many others, I think there was that crazy guy with the mental hair that's a bit of a mad watch collector. He was in doing his round. He definitely looks like a cartoon character. No two ways about it. No offence meant, of course.
- [22:26]
Hamish
No, he looks absolutely wild to the moon. But he's a great guy because we've met him a number of times. Also, Andrew Morgan was there with his good wife, his good lady Charlotte. They were. They were doing something and I really can't put my finger on what it was they were up to, but they were up to some nefarious thing. Andrew McCutcheon was there. Time and tide. I'm trying to think who else we saw Rob Nudds. There was lots of stuff happening, lots
- [22:45]
Ricky
of crazy things, lots of cool people.
- [22:47]
Hamish
A bowl of salmon turned up. That's a guy on Instagram. That's not food. Too many to mention. But you'll just have to look in the show notes. You'll just have to look at the YouTube video because many of them were captured roaming around the place. But it's time to get into some of the watches, some of the people we spoke to, and we'll start off, because I'm doing it in the order that I can remember we did it in. And that was Johnny from William Wood Watches. They are known for doing fire service watches and this time around they were doing a commemorative limited edition for British Watchmakers Day 2026. And it was all based around the Great Fire of London.
- [23:17]
Dave
Yes, indeed. Always great to catch up with Johnny and his good lady wife, who are both, of course, running that business. I think we understood that they're now living in France. Oh, wouldn't that be lovely? But yes, a watch all about the Great Fire of London. It's amazing to think, to be honest, that probably one of the most famous fires that's ever happened in the uk. That was, of course, until the Sunday that we got back from the show. More on that later. There was that big fire in London and I'm amazed that they've never actually used that as a subject before, of course, with the brand being, well, almost entirely dedicated to taking its inspiration from different areas of firefighting. That watch, I think the first 50 pieces of that were being made available at British Watchmakers Day. It's also got a dial that's kind of based around London, the Big Ben, or more specifically, I think it's called Queen Elizabeth Tower. The clock face on the Queen Elizabeth Tower, which is well, more well known as Big Ben. And it has a connection to the fire of London on the case back, which uses a two pound commemorative coin that is depicting the event. But, well, it was kind of irpsed as the biggest fire in the UK once while we got home, Ricky.
- [24:16]
Hamish
Yeah, it was a weird one. We got home and then on Sunday there was a fire in Glasgow, started in a vape shop. Funnily enough, those lithium ion packs are not that safe. And it never really occurred to me, having thought of fires in cars like Teslas and things, where a car catches fire in the entire car park, burns to the ground. Turns out if you've got a dodgy vape in a shop full of dodgy vapes with lots of lithium ion packs all packed together, not a lot of fire retardant in the area, then, yeah, you can bring down a grade B listed building in the city centre of Glasgow that's been there since the 1800s. Not cool. And it took nearly a day for the fire service working extremely hard, pumping water from the River Clyde up about a mile, I think, to get to the actual fire itself. Many appliances on site, over 250 firefighters to try and control the blaze once it caught footing. And they've closed down Central Station, which is Scotland's biggest train station, one of the biggest in the uk. And it's still closed as a recording this podcast because it has joined onto this area that is totally decimated. It is a shell. Looks like the Colosseum. Now, the before and after pictures are terrible. Harping on about it a little bit because it was a big, massive landmark. Anyone that has ever visited Glasgow, anyone that stayed in Glasgow, in Scotland will know what we're talking about and will have seen this at some point in the past. So, yeah, that was. Maybe the guys at Williamude can do a commemorative Glasgow watch for next year.
- [25:35]
Ricky
Who knows?
- [25:35]
Hamish
Who can tell? Next up, it was the folks at Zero West. We've not a demo on the show for probably a couple of years now, but they've been busy beavering away and we're going to be doing something later in the year that they're going to be involved in. But they have got their unique SP on creating watches that they just add and add and add. If you think of maybe the epic, epic X from Jacob and co, not quite as sleek that look, but similar and at a price point where the decimal place has been moved in your favor. That's what Zero west do. They do pretty much everything in house or within the locale. The actual machining of the cases, the straps are made in house by the guys themselves. The only thing they probably don't make is a hairspring, the movement and the crystal on the front. They had a limited edition out in many different ways. It was one of the best of the show in my humble OP opinion. All the pictures and details been the show notes bumped into Joshua from Watch It Fair that is coming back. I think it's in a couple of months time, maybe May or June. More details on that shortly. And we're actually reminiscing because Zero West's first ever interview in the media space was at the Watch it show in 2019 when the podcast just started by myself. They were there, I was there. Josh, the guy that actually runs the event, he was there. So we had a merry old time thinking about stuff. And then we saw that other guy from Scotland that doesn't have any hair. Dave.
- [26:46]
Dave
Yes, indeed, that being Chris Alexander, better known as of course the dial artist. And he's paired the up with a pair, a pr, I call it a pair. I think it sounds better. Anyway, we will carry on. Something about a new pair. Less said about that probably the better. But this is the brand, of course, that's very well known for using their additive technologies to 3D print effectively watches. They got to show us a few new things. There was a new carbon case that had been 3D printed that they were exhibiting at the show. And alongside that with their additive techniques in titanium, they have the watch that they've done in combination with Chris Alexander. This is called the Gen 1.1 Underground. Now, the dial on this is produced through CNC machining and then it's hand painted of course by Chris and it's been done in the colours of London's different underground train lines. And you've got a matching rotor on there. It's a Lajioux Perret G101 movement. They only made three watches, each of them being slightly different from each other. And it was priced around £3,000 and they vanished like the proverbial off of a broomstick. There was really, really good looking watch. Check out the show notes because the dial in this really is a standout. Normally with this brand you're looking at the cases, that's the bit that kind of catches your eye. But in this one, I would argue that almost the dial is catching more of your eye than the case itself. But two of them working in harmony very well. Great to see the kind of things develop there. And of course, Chris doing more and more collaborations with lots of different brands. We then moved on to that other brand called Edward Christopher and we saw something that is. Well, it's got some familiar looks of something else I've seen, but they've done it at a price point that's definitely not available from the other brand. That it has some similarities with.
- [28:23]
Hamish
Edward Christopher, not Christopher Ward. We'll talk about them next. But the guy that runs this brand is. I don't know. I can't explain what it's like to speak to him. He could narrate anything. He has got the ultimate audiobook voice. Can't wait to bring him onto the podcast. We keep threatening to do so. He wasn't kicking around when I was doing my recording on the Friday, otherwise he would be included in this show. But he will be on at some point. And he had this watch, it's called the Ripple. And it looks like if you were to drop a pebble or a rock or something in a pond and you saw the ripples emanating from the center point, this has been done in a more expensive way with GrandFu enamel. With the guys at Czapek a couple of years ago, I think it was Promenade, the one that they had out. And this is similar, but a much more economical price point. And the dials are damn good. They don't have the glassy look that maybe the Czupek have. These have got more industrialized metallic look. So if you're thinking of maybe the T2 Terminator 2, the T1000, when it turns from liquid metal into something, the way that the ripples go through the mercury effect there, that's what you're talking about. There are loads of different colourways, including a special edition for Watchmakers Day. Not sure how many are left, if any at all, because it was an extremely popular watch, as were the new range. And obviously they had the previous editions kicking around. Then it was the other guys, the Christopher Ward guys, and they had a special edition watch as well. And that was based on their new C1 loco.
- [29:44]
Dave
And this is a completely new take on the Loco. The Loco already being a fairly new watch, but this was called the 7326 loco C1. Now the name 7326 is indicative of the date. 7th March 2026. Of course, that being the date of this edition of the British Watchmakers Day. It's a completely new interpretation of the Loco. That's their Flying Balance display watch with the integrated bracelet that took its initial design inspiration from the 12 model. This one though, is housed in, in my opinion, more dressy, light catcher case, but more elegant, more of a classic design. It's definitely been paired with some Union flag motifs across the base. And it's got classical Roman numerals on that sub dial. They only did 10 pieces of it and they came in at just a fraction under 5,000. I believe they sold out in something like 26 minutes and they were all gone. So that was something that was, well, probably going to happen anyway. But yes, they have disappeared off the face of the earth. Great looking watch. Really more traditional take take on that model. Be interesting to see if they roll that out into other non limited edition pieces. I'm sure they will.
- [30:52]
Hamish
Next we stopped by to see the guys at Ember Watches because I copped them at the Bristol Watch show tail end of last year and it was my first time seeing the watches and they sit around about £4, £500 mark UK and they're great, they really are stunning, the color schemes they've got. The one that was most important this time around was their latest limited edition, which looked like Sweetie. You know those little baby sweeties used to get in 10 pence mixes where it was pink on one side, blue on the other. They did this with a dial, they did this with the strap arrangements and at a price point that was just brilliant. And I loved on the back of it where they had a little logo emblazoned like wallpaper with a repeating background that was pretty good. Then we caught up with an old friend, Piers, at the Pinion Watch Company and again taking it way, way back to 2019. He was one of the other brands that I spoke to at the Watch at Fair because at that moment, time, he had just created some watches that were used in Doctor who. David Tennant. He'd also created a watch for John Cena to use in the latest version of the Fast and Furious that was coming out thereafter. And he was telling us the story, he was repeating it to the wife because she hadn't heard it before, about how they had to make a strap that was so long because John Cena's arm is like a tree trunk. He was telling us how busy he's been, what he's Been up to the fact that he doesn't have time to do anything else apart from watches at the moment because things are going well. And the new versions they had out, they were still.
- [32:08]
Dave
And indeed the new one they brought out is called the Pure Chance and we'll see how we get to that. Because Pure in Scotland, something being a pure chance, that's definitely a Scottish phrase. Although that's not where this one comes from, is it?
- [32:19]
Hamish
Dead brilliant.
- [32:20]
Dave
It is indeed. But this is a reinterpretation of the pure model from back in 2014. It's a redesigned case and in this instance it's 38 millimeters and it has an Aventurine glass dial. The name Pure Chance, well, that kind of refers back to the fact that Aventurine glass, when it was originally well discovered, invented, however you want to describe it, back in the 17th century, it was an accident or in their case by pure chance, that they came across this. Quite a clever wordplay on this one. Limited to 50 watches. This was one of the bargains of the show, in my opinion. £1,350. Not the cheapest watch at the show by a long way. But I have to say for what you are getting in this watch, in terms of the movement, the dial, the case, everything being put together on it, just an excellent watch at a price point. That really belies the quality that's going into this great looking watch. I don't know what Ricky thinks, but to me, if this price point had been 2,500, 3,000, even maybe 4,000, you could probably have gone, I can see why it's that price, but at 1350, bit of a bargain.
- [33:20]
Hamish
I like Piers because he's always been honest and upfront since the moment we first started chatting. And he's known Dave a lot longer than myself. The watches he produces, he puts his heart and soul into his background with design, not just graphic design, but working with agencies, all kinds of stuff. He's been involved in television and film. That's obviously led into what he's done. Most recently he had a few irons in the fire when it comes to Hollywood that he wouldn't tell us about until they happen, but we'll bring news on that later. But just the way he does things and he is so intricate and everything has to be absolutely perfect or it doesn't leave the premises. That is something to behold and at this price point it's phenomenal. In actual fact, we're having a chat about the new Bremont Felix the Cat edition and he said back in 2013 he did something like that with Bremont, where a little Felix the cat ended up on Very weird, very strange. Almost as if they're revisiting the those guys over at Bremont. But apart from that, there was a watch we saw next at Schofield and this guy, if you think of crazy people like Doc Brown, you know, the mad inventor, mad scientist guy, the guy that runs Scofield, this is him.
- [34:19]
Dave
And I think this will go up there with one of the favouritest watches of mine from the entire show. That was perfect, grammatically perfect English. This is the Schofield Sceptico and it's a new timepiece. It's available in two versions. The first one is the boring one. It's not a boring watch. It's still cool, but it's a bit boring compared to the one I love. And that's the one in stainless steel. But the one that I was all about was made out of a translucent orange material used in the aerospace industry called Ultim. And it's a kind of plasticky feeling, very lightweight material. It's got this translucent quality to it as well. And it's in a weird orangey rusty type color. The case is made from this. It's paired with a kind of dark geometric design dial and it's got a bit of a UFO theme to it. The two models are called the Artifacts and the Sightings. And it's got some really cool use of lume, so much so that when you loom up and charge up the lume in the dial, especially in the one with the ultim, you can see that, you know, shining through the side of the case. £4,680 for that one. Definitely a more considered purchase, but a super cool looking watch. I just was really taken by it. Not for the faint of heart. It's a big chunky number, large in diameter, large in height as well, but just in. That material is super cool. If you're into things like, you know, everyday carry items, whether it be little pocket knives, or whether it be kind of like little spinners or all these different things that people classify into that everyday carry, you'll have come across this material before. One of the first times it's been used in a watch, to my knowledge, I'm sure someone's probably done it before, but it's been done extremely well. In the case of this watch, definitely one of my watches of the event
- [35:58]
Hamish
next I stopped off. You probably did as well, Dave, but we're independently walking around at this point to see the watches from Anoma and these are the pebble styled watches that are triangular in shape, but they just have a very, I don't know, alien organic matter styling to them. They don't look like they've been created by somebody on this planet as much as we just mentioned the mad scientist a second ago. And the refinement for a brand that is on its first iteration of a watch, multiple models, first iteration. It's mind blowing what these guys are doing. And they showed me something that they're going to be bringing out maybe in the summer, maybe towards the end of the year, that I again, was phenomenal. I don't think it's embargoed because the gentleman was wearing it on his wrist. So if it's in the public, then there might be some pictures in the show notes, there might be some video clips. Who knows what's going on there? Then obviously we mentioned we caught up with Adrian from Bark and Jack. I was speaking to Andrew Morgan ever so briefly and my Mrs. Simona was speaking to Charlotte because Andrew and Charlotte have been working together on his different projects for about a year and a half now. And the news I've got is finally I'm going to be getting back to people by email and stuff because Simona is joining the Scottish watches team. I need a hand. I am terrible at communicating, I'm amazing at forgetting things. So hopefully she'll be able to hit me with a rolling pin, get my arse in gear so that all the brands that try and email in, all the people that ask his stuff, they will actually get something happening from now on. So that is the big news there. Spoke to the guy from Arken, up the stairs in the cafe with a brief chinwai before he was rushed away. Met some other listeners, some longtime followers to the show, Chris Jones and his wife. As they were leaving, we had a quick chat with them. They showed me what they'd picked up, had a little bit of a Q and A session. They were asking me some questions about the podcast. It was explaining how things work. And then we saw a lot of people heading to the studio Underdog nature area.
- [37:43]
Dave
They had put together a task and if you'd gone to the event the night before, Ricky, I know you were tied up with something else, but I was there. They made it available to be booked at that evening event so that you could get yourself on a table to try out a little task. And in the case of this, it was can you fit hands onto a watch as if you were a watchmaker assembling it. Something that seems like it's going to be straightforward and easy, but in fact, well, definitely is not. I know that our Sarah, she had a go at it as well. I think she did quite successful with it, even on her Instagram. I think she posted it. She was rather proud of herself. She did a fairly good job, better than many others. Pretty difficult task. Got to catch up with many of the other regulars who've been on the show as well. We've got Neil from Duckworth. We caught up with Jussy at Izotope. And of course we got to catch up with Roger Smith, who on his stand had the large drawing that Sophie had done of one of his watches, which has also made its way onto the official T shirts of the event. Pictures of Simona wearing it are probably going to be in the show notes then. I think you actually had a bit of a chat with the guys at Swan and Edgar.
- [38:45]
Hamish
Yeah. Got to meet James, one of the guys at the helm, and we had him on for an insert on the show many months ago when they were releasing their latest crazy creation and he was there showcasing it in real life to the public. And it was going down an absolute storm. We quickly grabbed lunch across the road from the show in an Italian place. Nobody else was there. We thought it was closed, but we went and we took over the whole ground floor floor. Met up with Ben, one of the listeners to the show that actually accompanied us to Geneva watch days, not last year, but the year before. It was good to see him again. And before we finish up the show, we should probably have a couple more people to chat to.
- [39:16]
Ricky
Right, we've got the team. Not just one person, the team from Elliott Brown. Introduce yourselves to the audience.
- [39:21]
Jem
Hi, I'm Jem from Elliot Brown.
- [39:23]
Guy
And I'm Guy from Elliot Brown.
- [39:24]
Ricky
Now, you guys have been here many times in the past. You've been on the show many times in the past because you've always got new iterations, new design. More recently, some funky, cool colors that we talked about at length. But what are you doing for watchmakers then?
- [39:34]
Guy
Well, we've got a Beachmaster automatic with
- [39:37]
Hamish
a new dial color limited series of
- [39:40]
Dave
10 that we've never done before.
- [39:41]
Guy
So that's exciting.
- [39:42]
Ricky
Okay, tell us more about it.
- [39:43]
Guy
It's a British green dial based off
- [39:46]
Jem
kind of like that deep oak color, like the leaf color and the moss and the lichen. And we have slightly old radium indices. So kind of cobbled walls, just basically, basically imbuing all of the UK into one sort of two different colors within the watch.
- [40:02]
Ricky
Right, okay. That's what's happening today. What's been happening recently then? Because you told me you were going to travel less, invest more time in the uk, more time at home, relax, enjoy life. That hasn't happened.
- [40:13]
Rich
No, she was lying to me.
- [40:15]
Ricky
Ah, okay, cool.
- [40:16]
Jem
Or each other, I don't know. However that works. So our event schedule is 20 this year, which is five more than last last year. However, I am slightly more true to. My promise is that more of them are in the uk.
- [40:28]
Ricky
Right.
- [40:29]
Jem
So we have committed to all of Hamish's shows. So we've got Glasgow, Southampton and Manchester. We are doing other bits and pieces around the UK as well, and then more in Canada and then a few with different companies out in the States. So we've mixed it up a bit this year and we are spending more time. We've also got two new European shows that we're really looking forward to. So, yeah, so there's lots going on, but we have mixed sort of. We have sort of thrown things in the air and just sort of see what will happen. So it's good, it's exciting.
- [41:01]
Ricky
Good. Now, obviously people watching this, it's after the event. You can't buy the limited edition watches here.
- [41:07]
Jem
No.
- [41:07]
Ricky
What else have you got on the cards or what have you released recently?
- [41:09]
Hamish
People can have a look at.
- [41:11]
Jem
So next Friday. So the third. Friday the 13th. Lucky for some.
- [41:16]
Hamish
Okay.
- [41:17]
Jem
We launched launch a pre order limited edition Halton Professional.
- [41:22]
Hamish
Okay.
- [41:23]
Jem
So the last time we did this was the white out that you and I covered.
- [41:26]
Ricky
Love it.
- [41:27]
Hamish
Yes.
- [41:27]
Jem
And it's a quartz. It's a brush steel case, which we've never done at a mass supply before in a halton. They've either been PVD or brush bead blast. No date.
- [41:38]
Hamish
Okay.
- [41:38]
Jem
Very minimal branding. And it's in a flat dark earth color. So we have a bit of a joke in our office that Alex goes through color phase phases. A bit like Picasso in his blue period. Alex has those colour phases. So we saw the Nivo and that was. We sort of see kind of come through all of our watches. We're now sort of seeing that flat dark earth color kind of coming through. So we have it in straps and caps already. And this is the first time we've put it in a dial onto our halton.
- [42:04]
Ricky
Looking forward to seeing what that one looks like. Well, we'll let you go on. This is setup day. You guys have got a lot to do. So thanks for joining us today.
- [42:10]
Jem
Thank you. And I'm sure it'll be a fantastic show and we're really glad to be here once again.
- [42:15]
Dave
And then that was, well, before we know it, coming towards the back end of the show. We'd spent all day wandering around talking to familiar faces, new faces and, well, catching up with all the news, the watches that have been released and what plans they've got for 2026. Because of course, we're only at the start of the year when it comes to the Watch shows. Many more coming up. We've got that big one in Switzerland, the one where the big brands try and take over the world, that's coming up in the next few weeks. And then we've got, well, a plethora of shows happening throughout the world, in the us, in Europe. And of course we' will have Hamish on to talk all about the shows that he's putting on in the uk, one of them being in the home city of Glasgow. And hopefully there won't be any venues burning down before that event takes place. But yes, we will have him in the show in the very near future to tell you all about that. That was a roundup of British Watchmakers Day. There was a bit of travel to be done, there was some tidying up to be done and there's maybe some other people that need to get, well, a little bit of their news in before we round this show out.
- [43:14]
Ricky
It's time to chat with the Brooklands Watch Company and it's another big. Because there's some kind of celebration with
- [43:20]
Guy
you guys There certainly is, yeah. This is a big year for us because it's 100 years since the first British Grand Prix, which was in 1926 at Brooklands.
- [43:29]
Ricky
I'm glad you got your math correct there. Well, first of all, let's talk about Watchmakers Day, because that's what this show is all about. What are your plans here? What are you going to be doing? What limited edition have you got up your sleeve?
- [43:38]
Guy
So we're here to sell the spectrum, but we've also got a limited edition of just 10 watch watches. That series is called the Redline. We're looking forward to showing the collectors here exactly what that looks like. But it's a great looking watch. It's a classic, as most of them are.
- [43:54]
Hamish
Good, good.
- [43:55]
Ricky
Well, there'll be lots of pictures in the show notes, obviously the YouTube video will have lots of content sitting there. Well, tell us a little bit more about what happened 100 years ago. Why was this happening in Brookland? Why didn't it happen elsewhere? In the country. Was there not brand Hatch, Silverstone. They didn't exist.
- [44:09]
Guy
They didn't, no. So 1926, it was won by a Frenchman, I think. But the car that won it was absolutely stunning. It was a. I think it was a 1500cc straight eight supercharged and it was called a Delage. And there's actually a video online of a Delage going around a track in New Zealand and you will not believe the noise this car makes.
- [44:32]
Ricky
Is it as noisy as the environment? We're recording Nathan just now.
- [44:36]
Guy
It's noisier.
- [44:37]
Hamish
Noisier?
- [44:37]
Guy
Yeah. It actually sounds like quite a modern supercar. It's really incredible.
- [44:42]
Hamish
Watch.
- [44:42]
Dave
Yeah.
- [44:43]
Ricky
Well, you are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to all kind of things. Motor racing. You do like to hold back. You are very humble and we've said this in the show before, but one of our biggest episodes of all time, not just in the last year, was when you organized to have four world record holders in the one place at the one time and I got to interview them. So if anyone hasn't heard that episode, go back in the back catalog, through Spotify, through Apple Podcasts, go and have a listen to it. It's fantastic. And we'll catch up with you again soon.
- [45:07]
Guy
Lovely. Thanks, Ricky. Nice to see you.
- [45:09]
Dave
And before we round out the show, check out a few episodes in our back catalogue. Alistair from the alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers. He was on recently talking all about the different limited edition releases that were available at the show. Some of them are long gone, sold out, but there are no doubt a few still available. It's always good even just to have a look at things that you can't get anymore and well, pay homage to the quality that went into those as well. You should also check out the episodes with Montblanc, Minerva, Simon. There's three episodes with Simon in it and. And there's a fourth one coming up, albeit it won't have Simon in it. It'll have, well, the big boss that's coming in the very near future. Adrian from Bark and Jack was back on. He hasn't been on for quite a while, but he was talking all about his latest work that he's done with Christopher Ward and releasing that model called the 15.
- [45:54]
Hamish
Prior to that we had Geoff Dodd, Formula E CEO and watch collector. Extremo mentioned him earlier. Got to see him in real life, hopefully see him again in the coming months at different events across the the globe. And Andrew Morgan, he was on talking about this, that and the other and he got a little bit of flack in the community for one of his recent videos where people read the title, saw the thumbnail and then took from that that he was leaving YouTube. Know what that was all about but watch the video for more information. Always good to catch up with him and that's pretty much us. We have got lots of exciting content coming just before watching wonders. Many of the brands like to come on just as things are heating up to tell you what's happening ahead of time because they they know day one watches Wonders, Patek, Rolex, Tudor are all going to drop what they have got and everyone else doesn't get a look in. So yeah stay tuned to the podcast Follow us ottoswatches on Instagram drop US emails never DM US infocottishwatches.co.uk and make sure you're subscribed on YouTube because it's free and you get to see everything in a visual format and that is us. So thanks for listening and we'll catch you again soon.
- [46:54]
Dave
Take care.