England’s contributions to the world are almost endless to list.
Today, the hub of world-class watchmaking is found in Switzerland. But what about England’s contributions to watchmaking history?
London was actually the center of the watch industry from the 16th to the 19th century with British watchmakers making important innovations during that time.
So who are some of the most influential and interesting British watchmakers?

Christopher Ward is a new age watchmaker.
A brand born just in 2004, Ward’s eponymous brand released its first two watches (the C5 Malvern Automatic and the C3 Malvern Chronograph) in June 2005 and advertised with a full-page advertisement in The Independent newspaper.

The brand — a “microbrand” with a focus on affordability— started slowly, but has since taken orders from all over the world, including the North Pole.
Vertex was known for producing watches made for the British military.
However, when the Quartz Crisis occurred in the 1970s, Vertex was forced to close its doors.

The company reestablished itself in 2016 by the Vertex founder’s great-grandson and today produces luxury watches with Swiss movements.
Pinion is another newer British brand, founded in 2013, which prides itself on clarity over complexity and a meticulous attention to detail.
The brand uses a direct-to-consumer sales approach and takes inspiration from British military watches.
Pinion has supplied watches to be worn in film, including in the NBC series “Taken.”

Finally, Loomes traces its roots back to the 1650’s when founder Thomas Loomes ran London’s largest firm of clock and watchmakers.
Today, Loomes & Co. runs its workshops in a traditional manner while employing a small team of highly skilled staff.
The brand claims to have an entirely in-house designed-and-built movement.
Mark Sirianni Watch Repair
25 Fraley Street
Kane, Pa. 16735
814-837-9435
814-558-4818 (cell)
watchdoctorpa@gmail.com

13 Comments
Rick Campana
Thanks Mark! As always your content is fresh, interesting and very educational. I had never heard of any of these English watch making companies!
Ken Borgland
All the best to you and your family in the holiday season
Johnny
Very interesting Mark. I had never heard of these watch companies.
Douglas Taylor
bremont is also a great watch from England
John Carlson, Canada
Mark, I truly enjoy your content. I always ‘watch’ the used section–love those pocket watches.
All of the watches you have done for me are working perfectly 🙂
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Kanzen
You could have mentioned that Rolex watches were made in the UK before moving to Switzerland, if I am right !
Kanzen
Jon Wolfe
I believe the movements were imported to England and then placed in a case—usually Dennison which is made in UK but founder was an American.
Tom nosker
Cool, and you picked the coolest Chris Ward to show! You missed Smiths, which was worn along with Rolex on Hillary’s trip to Everest.
Jon Wolfe
Yes, I was thinking of Smith as well.
Greg
One of England’s great contributions to time was the development of navigational clocks by John Harrison in the early 1700’s. These were the first clocks accurate enough to be used in navigational computations. They are on display today at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This is a suburb of London and you can get to it on the Tube. Some of Harrison’s early model clocks are the size of a washing machine! They are made of brass and one can see all the works. Absolutely incredible and well worth a visit!
Mike S
Doc, you forgot Bremont!
I own 2 and love them…
j
Nite watches are designed and assembled in England but use Swiss quartz movements. They are not high priced luxury watches like the nice ones mentioned here. They use very bright Tritium T100 tubes and are very, very water proof.
Sam Cushing
I think my Graham is manufactured there? Its the Megxit model so it’s already not working and costing me tons of money to fix. Good stuff here as usual !