Watches hand made in England?  Britain does have an interesting watchmaking past – it might not be something you hear very often these days, but it is true in this case.

Garrick England assemble their watches by hand from scratch, in their workshop in Norwich, under the watchful eye of master Watchmaker, Craig Baird.  All parts where possible, if not made in-house, are sourced from English suppliers, the rest coming from Switzerland.

This is the 5th timepiece by the manufacturer, presented with an air of confidence from the English brand:

The S2 Central Seconds represents the pinnacle of Garrick ownership and confers a degree of exclusivity seldom found with mass produced watches

Garrick England S2 Central Seconds

Face & case

The highly polished stainless steel case is 42mm and in a traditional shape and design, framing the beautiful face.  There is an option to have this in solid 18 carat gold, should you wish to go all out.

The first thing you will notice is the engine-turned dial.  Each piece will look different, due to the guilloche being hand machined – design in either rhodium (the rhodium is treated 3 times to achieve the dark grey colour) or gold plate are offered, with the additional personalisation of design and colour finish are potentially available when specifying your purchase. 

Between the bezel and the dial is the chapter ring, which is white and finished with a circular-grained pattern. The hour markers have been created with thermally blued Roman numerals sitting nicely on a “chemin de fer” which allows the minutes and seconds to be easily read.. 

The “Garrick England” brand plate sits proud beneath the anti-reflective sapphire and runs from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock, just inside the chapter ring.

There is a large aperture at 6 o’clock (almost the whole radius from the centre to the bezel) where the balance wheel spins, the sturdy bridge straddles the aperture, giving an added visual pleasure to it’s function.  The frosted gold plate or rhodium plate with perlage decoration.

Blue hands sit on top of it all.  Made in-house, the lancine hands have faceted edges – the thermally blued steel hands shown allow the time to read well against the rhodium dial, however clients also have the option to  choose from polished or brushed steel hands.

The crown is large, fluted and onion shaped – the fact it protrudes quite far out allows for ease of winding and manipulation of the time.

The case back is transparent, providing an exhibition view of the plate, movement and hand engraved parts.  

Garrick England S2 case back

Movement

The movement is a new and exclusive Garrick calibre UT-G03, manual wound mechanical movement, featuring an in-house free sprung balance.  The original UT-G01 calibre, of which this has evolved, was designed in partnership with world renowned Swiss watchmaker Andreas Strehler and his company Uhr Teil AG. 

The UT-G03 has 19 jewels, tested and regulated to ensure a daily variance of +3 seconds.

Expect at least 45 hours power reserve.

Garrick England S2 crown

Strap

The strap on the watches I handled were in shark, however as with much of the watch, the strap material options could be your own.  I expect you could choose from pretty much anything, although other options listed on the specification sheet are alligator, calf leather, buffalo and ostrich.

The pin buckle is 316L stainless steel and features the GARRICK brand in bold across it.

Garrick England S2 strap and buckle

Other stuff

Each dial takes around 5 days to build, with each piece taking around 3 weeks – the waiting time is currently 8 – 12 weeks.

The rim of the balance wheel is made of a patented anti-magnetic alloy called Sircumet.  The rate of the movement is altered by adjusting the timing screws on the balance. These screws are set inboard, mitigating air turbulence and, in so doing, augmenting precision.

The watch is also 100m water resistant, which is always handy.

Garrick England S2 on the wrist

Our verdict

The Garrick England S2 Central Seconds is a nice looking watch – simplistic, yet slightly extravagant; with the hand turned guilloche dial and spinning balance wheel taking up a large proportion of the lower half of the dial.

The watch has a good weight to it whilst in hand, but on the wrist it feels just right, well balanced and a very comfortable fit.  At only 10mm thick, the watch fits nicely under my cuff.

The fact that each piece is unique; specified to order and hand made for the purchaser, the S2 is 100% great value for money at only £12,495 (+ VAT). 

Hand made Swiss watches command a considerably higher price tag, so perhaps you should take advantage while you can!

https://www.garrick.co.uk/