The Quiet Revolution in British Watchmaking (And the Organisation Behind It)

In November 2018, Christopher Ward CEO Mike France bumped into Dr Roger W. Smith OBE — one of the most respected independent watchmakers alive — at a half-empty Salon QP in London. The UK's flagship watch event was dying on its feet. Both men agreed on something that felt obvious but that nobody was acting on: British watchmaking was growing fast, yet the industry had no collective voice, no shared infrastructure, and no way to tell the world what was happening.

Eighteen months later, in February 2020, they founded the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers. Five years on, it's quietly becoming the most important organisation in UK horology — and if you're not paying attention to what's being built, you're missing the story.

What the Alliance Actually Is

The Alliance is a not-for-profit trade body representing British watch and clock makers. Roger Smith chairs it. Alistair Audsley, a filmmaker and Smith's corporate affairs advisor, runs it as CEO. The founding members were Smith, Christopher Ward, Fears, Mr Jones Watches, and clockmaker Sinclair Harding — a deliberate spread across price points, styles, and traditions.

It now has over 80 trade members. The roster reads like a who's who of British independent watchmaking: Bremont (which joined in early 2024), Farer, Studio Underd0g, Fears, Christopher Ward, Vertex, Elliot Brown, Marloe, Pinion, Garrick, Schofield, Duckworth Prestex, Isotope, and dozens more. It also has a partnership with the Horological Society of New York, established in 2020.

But the numbers that matter most aren't the membership count. They're in the Alliance's own industry study, which reported 65% revenue growth across the British watchmaking sector since its 2021 baseline. That rate outpaces the wider UK economy by a significant margin. The study also found that 80% of member firms now carry out quality control in-house — a sign that these aren't just brands slapping logos on imported products. They're building real technical capability.

British Watchmakers' Day: The Proof of Concept

The Alliance's flagship event, British Watchmakers' Day, has become the clearest evidence that something real is happening.

The first edition, held at Lindley Hall in Westminster in March 2024, drew close to 1,300 visitors and featured over 40 brands. It was the first major UK event dedicated entirely to British watch and clock brands. When it ended, a spontaneous round of applause broke out from both visitors and exhibitors. One exhibitor described it as "Day One for British watchmaking."

The second edition, in March 2025, sold out the day general tickets went on sale. Over 1,200 visitors packed Lindley Hall. People were queuing from 5:45 in the morning. Forty-four brands exhibited, twenty-six of them presenting special edition watches exclusively available on the day. The Studio Underd0g x Fears Gimlet collaboration — 200 pieces at £1,000 each — sold out within an hour of the doors opening.

A third event is already confirmed for March 2026, with 48 brands signed up. The trajectory is clear: each year, the event is bigger, sells out faster, and draws more international attention. Visitors have flown in from Singapore, Los Angeles, and across Europe.

This matters because British watchmaking hasn't had an event like this — a dedicated, sold-out, internationally noticed showcase — in decades. Possibly ever. The collapse of Salon QP left a vacuum. The Alliance didn't just fill it; it built something better: an event where every exhibitor is British, every price point from accessible to haute horlogerie is represented, and the atmosphere is built around accessibility rather than exclusivity.

Why This Moment Is Different

Britain has a deep history in horology. John Harrison's marine chronometers. Thomas Mudge's lever escapement. Abraham-Louis Breguet trained in London. George Daniels invented the coaxial escapement on the Isle of Man. For most of the eighteenth century, Britain was the centre of the watchmaking world.

The quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, combined with decades of industrial decline, effectively destroyed British watchmaking as a commercial force. Switzerland rebuilt. Japan innovated. Britain all but disappeared from the map.

What's happening now isn't just nostalgia or a handful of microbrands selling to enthusiasts. It's a coordinated, growing industry with real infrastructure behind it. Consider what exists in British watchmaking today that didn't exist ten years ago:

Christopher Ward developed the SH21 manufacture movement through a merger with Swiss movement specialist Synergies Horlogères and now produces watches with 120-hour power reserves and COSC certification at prices that undercut comparable Swiss brands significantly. Bremont has been building toward full UK manufacturing for years, releasing the Longitude with its first proprietary calibre in 2022, and is now led by industry veteran Davide Cerrato with investment from Bill Ackman's fund. Garrick in Norfolk produces around 50 watches a year with movements developed alongside Andreas Strehler. Roger Smith continues to make some of the finest watches on the planet from his Isle of Man workshop.

At the accessible end — the end that actually builds an industry — Studio Underd0g went from a lockdown sketch to one of the most talked-about microbrands in the world in under four years. Farer has established a distinctive British design language that's immediately recognisable. Fears, founded in Bristol in 1846, is one of the oldest family-run watch companies in the country and has built a following by doing something radical: making elegant watches and selling them honestly. Anordain in Glasgow (technically Scottish, but firmly part of the British scene) is producing grand feu enamel dials that rival anything coming out of Switzerland.

None of these brands existed in anything like their current form during the last generation. Several of them didn't exist at all.

What the Alliance Makes Possible

Individual brands can make great watches. What they can't do on their own is build an industry. That requires coordination, collective advocacy, shared events, training pipelines, and a public narrative that pulls people in.

The Alliance provides all of this. It runs British Watchmakers' Day. It maintains a directory of British watch and clock makers — originally mapping around 50 brands when founded, now tracking considerably more. It offers club membership for collectors and enthusiasts at £55 a year, creating a community that's invested in the success of British watchmaking as a whole, not just individual brands. It's actively working on education and apprenticeships, addressing the industry's biggest structural weakness: a shortage of trained watchmakers.

The collaboration model is particularly interesting. The Fears x Christopher Ward Alliance 01 — a limited run of 50 pieces in 2023, with all proceeds going to the Alliance — was the first tangible proof that member brands would work together rather than just coexist. The Underd0g x Fears Gimlet at BWD 2025 showed the commercial power of that approach: two brands from completely different ends of the design spectrum creating something that 200 people paid a thousand pounds each to own, with the hype and queues to match.

This is what "industry" looks like: brands that compete for customers but cooperate on building the ecosystem that makes all of them more visible, more credible, and more commercially viable.

What It Means If You're Buying Watches

If you collect or appreciate watches from British independents — and if you're reading this blog, there's a good chance you do — the Alliance matters to you for practical reasons.

It means more events where you can see and handle watches in person. It means more collaboration pieces and limited editions. It means a growing pipeline of trained watchmakers, which means better servicing and longer-term brand viability. And it means that the brands you already like are part of something bigger than themselves — an industry that's building real momentum rather than relying on individual bursts of hype.

British watchmaking hasn't had this kind of coordinated energy since before the quartz crisis dismantled it. What Roger Smith, Mike France, and the Alliance team have built in five years — from a conversation at a dying trade show to a sold-out national event with international press coverage and 80+ member brands — is remarkable. And they're not slowing down.

The Swiss industry spent the last century building institutions, infrastructure, and a collective identity that made "Swiss Made" the most powerful words in watchmaking. Britain is starting to build its own version of that. It's smaller, scrappier, and earlier in its story — but the foundation is real, the brands are serious, and the momentum is undeniable.

Pay attention.

CalderoneWatchCo stocks watches from Alliance members including Farer, Christopher Ward, and Studio Underd0g. British watchmaking is having a moment — and we're proud to be part of it. Browse our collection.