Editor's Picks
Frodsham Makes a Wristwatch
Editor's Picks
Frodsham Makes a Wristwatch
Daniels’ great friend, colleague and rival for the title of Britain’s greatest watchmaker was Derek Pratt, the technical director of Urban Jürgensen.
On one occasion, Pratt suggested that the Double Impulse Chronometer escapement might solve Frodsham’s problems. Daniels had always said the movement would be a technical challenge to miniaturise into a wristwatch, but this observation was made in the 1970s and in the interim, new machines emerged that could produce parts to finer tolerances than were around 30 years ago, while the acceptable size for a man’s wristwatch had grown since the relaunch of Panerai in 1993.
Around 2005, Frodsham disclosed its plans for a wristwatch. I placed a “teaser” on Timezone and periodically dropped in on Frodsham over the years, but kept hearing the mantra: “We will show it to you when it is ready.”
Frodsham developed and funded the watch from its own resources, with no external investors nor management consultants. Much of the investment came from work on projects undertaken for clients and friends. Frodsham completed Martin Burgess’s Regulator B, his development of one of Harrison’s precision clocks. The clock was finished in 2014; the following year, it was certified as the most precise mechanical clock in the world by The Guinness Book of Records after running for 100 days, at the end of which it was 5/8 of a second slow.
The Real Deal
Charles Frodsham founded his firm in 1834 and it soon became one of England’s premier chronometer makers. After the death of John Arnold’s son, Frodsham bought his firm and renamed the business Arnold & Frodsham. He took over the remaining stock of the Arnold family and continued to sell it; when this stock was depleted, he introduced his own new calibre, but continued to use the Arnold numbering system. For his best pieces, he reserved the mark “A.D.Fmsz”, standing for “Anno Domini 1850”, created from the numerical positions of the letters in “Frodsham,” with the addition of “z” for 0.
Feeling Blue
A perfect example of using the latest technology to achieve the desired result, PVD is combined with the classic watchmaking technique of flame-bluing for both the hands and the applied numerals. The watch is available with either Roman or Arabic numerals and, because the dial is machined from a solid piece of ceramic, its surface is absolutely flat, unlike an enamel dial where the enamel “falls away” at the edges of the holes for the applied numerals and hands.
Although the hour and minutes hands are of equal length, they are instantly differentiated from each other by the shape. The minute track, also printed by PVD, is set about 5mm from the edge and the numbers are applied between the edge and the track. The tips of the hands appear between the two lines of the railway tracks.
New materials and techniques aside, the construction pays homage to 18th- and 19th-century enamel dials. It is made from two separate plates machined to a thickness of only 0.45mm. The upper bears the minute track, signature and applied numerals and is drilled at the 6 o’clock position for the huge seconds track, printed on the lower plate. This permits the seconds hand to sit below the dial surface, which enables the hour and minute hands to sit close to the dial as they don’t have to clear the seconds hand. The two plates are secured by a metal bezel, as in antique pocket watches, keeping the case to a respectable 10.7mm high. Its diameter is 42mm, but the short, integrated lugs make it feel much smaller on the wrist.
Made completely in-house, the case is offered in stainless steel, 18K rose or white gold or 22K yellow gold. As a matter of historical interest, in England, this 22K standard was known as “Crown” gold since 1526, and all gold watches would have been of this purity until the re-introduction of 18K in 1798.
Frodsham overcame the problem of high carat gold’s softness by rolling the gold more intensively than is the norm, and making the case from one piece of metal, avoiding soldering or brazing. It has a slightly domed sapphire crystal covering the dial and a flat sapphire revealing the movement; a gasket between the caseback and body, along with twin “O” rings in the winding crown, guarantees water-resistance of 30m. Anyone swimming while wearing this, or any other ultra-fine watch, however, is not right of mind.
Twin Drive
Here we come to the amazing Daniels Double Impulse Chronometer escapement. Essentially comprised of two completely separate drive trains, each with its own escape wheel rotating in opposite directions and locking on a centrally-positioned titanium detent, it has the additional benefit of being completely lubrication-free as there are no sliding actions. The detent is made completely in-house, incorporates three jewels and weighs less than 5mg. Its large free-sprung balance has a self-compensating balance spring with raised terminal curve, and a proprietary shock protection system with fixed jewelled bearings.
Indicative, too, of Frodsham’s rethinking of the business is the strap proposal. When the watches are ready for collection, clients visit the shop and have their wrists measured. They choose a strap and, before fitting, a single hole is punched to suit exactly the client’s wrist. Another hole is punched to either side of that hole to allow for changes in the client’s wrist size or the climate. The holes are punched in the straps by a special machine, designed and constructed in-house by Frodsham. The buckles are also made in-house, and, while the straps aren’t made by Frodsham, they make a strong statement about the company’s unique approach.
I am not alone in being enamoured by the Frodsham wristwatch. No more than every three years, the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers awards a prize for “innovation, ingenuity, elegance, the highest standards of workmanship and precision performance in the craft and science of time and timekeeping.” The prize is worth £20,000 (the exact sum offered for the solution of the Longitude problem). Just after I sat down to write this, it was announced that Frodsham had been awarded this honour. Fittingly, the award is named “The Derek Pratt Prize.”