George Daniels (watchmaker)

George Daniels CBE ( born August 1926 in London, † October 21, 2011 on the Isle of Man) was a British watchmaker and author. He was the inventor of the Co-Axial escapement for wristwatches and pocket watches, which is industrially produced since 1999 by the manufacturer Omega.

Life and horological performance

Daniels came from a poor family. Fascinated early on mechanical watches, he brought the repairing watches at himself. At 14 he left school, but was able to start due to financial reasons, no apprentice watchmaker. Until his convocation 1944, he chatted with various smaller jobs of all. During his military service in the Middle East, among other things he repaired watches his comrades, which encouraged him to devote himself completely after the war of watchmaking. After he had learned the art of watchmaking in evening classes and found a job as a watchmaker, he was "Fellow" of the British Horological Institute. Later he opened his own watch business and restored old clocks.

By Sam Clutton, a fellow watch collector, he became aware of the French master watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet. The enthusiasm for the life's work of Breguet not only led to a book on its pocket watches, but also to the decision to construct its own clock. The work on his first pocket he began in 1967 and it took two years to complete it. Daniels sold it in 1969 for £ 1.900 at Clutton. He made more pocket watches entirely by hand, always careful as its model Breguet never to build two identical clocks. He worked intensively with the solution for the lubrication problem in watches inhibitions. When the temperature changes, these lubrication caused deviations in timekeeping. In the 1970s, he invented the Co-Axial escapement, the run without lubrication, and reported it in 1980 for a patent. But it was only in 1994, he was a watchmaker, Swiss Omega SA, convince them to produce its inhibition in series. 1999 watch series "Omega De Ville " first appeared with a Co - Axial escapement.

Daniels lectured on antique and contemporary watchmaking at Harvard University, Cambridge Philosophical Society, the British Horological Institute and the American Watchmakers Institute. He was a member of the British Horological Institute and the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers (founded in 1631). 1979/1980 he was president of both organizations.

The Daniels handmade for Sam Clutton pocket received proceeds of approximately $ 250,000 at an auction in the U.S..

In July 2006, in honor of his 80th Birthday, Sotheby's in London devoted a retrospective to him and allowed an exhibition of 36 of Daniel's handmade watches, his drawings and other works.

Honors and Awards

Daniels was an honorary member of the Académie horlogère of créateurs Independants ( AHCI). The City University of London awarded him an honorary doctorate. He has received various awards, including 1980, the Tompion Gold Medal of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, the British Horological Institute Gold Medal, the City and Guilds of London Gold Medal, the Arts Science and Learning Award of the City of London and the Victor Kullberg Medal the Stockholm Watchmaker 's Guild.

In 1982, Daniels was awarded the British Order of Knights Order of the British Empire in the member level. In 2010 he was awarded the Commander level.

Bibliography

  • Watches, BT Batsford Ltd.. , London 1965, ISBN 978-0-670-75076-4.
  • English and American Watches, 1966.
  • The Art of Breguet, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London 1974, ISBN 0-85667-004-9.
  • L' ouvre de Abraham -Louis Breguet, 1976. Exhibition catalog for Breguet exhibition at the Musée International d' Horlogerie in La Chaux -de-Fonds.
  • Watches. A Complete History of the Technology and Development of the Watch, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London 1979, ISBN 0-85667-058-8.
  • Watchmaking, Sotheby's, London, 1981, ISBN 0-85667-150-9.
  • Watches and Clocks: Salomon 's Collection, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London 1983, ISBN 0-85667-074- X.
  • The Practical Watch Escapement, Isle of Man (UK ), 1994
  • All in good time: reflections of a watch maker, Isle of Man (UK ), 2000 ( autobiography)
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