Master Watchmaker George Daniels

George Daniels is an English horologist who was known to be the best watch maker in the world during his lifetime.

George Daniels is an English horologist who was known to be the best watch maker in the world during his lifetime.

Born in Edgware in North West London in 1926 and one of 11 children George Daniels had a very difficult upbringing however overcame poverty and he managed to rise above his circumstances to become one of the greatest watchmakers.

Only at the age of 5 he discovered a broken watch, he opened the back of that watch and He became fascinated by the watch workings.  He managed to turn his real passion and collected knowledge into cash by repairing clocks, seeking orders by going from door-to-door. He even earned money mending soldiers’ watches during the Second World War.

Daniels produced his first mechanical watch in 1969. He fully constructed 25 watches entirely by hand from start to finish and perfected 32 watch scale out of the existing 34 watch scale during his lifetime.

George Daniels has been regarded as the master watch maker of the twentieth century and he is named as the father of modern horology. Watch as Sotheby's specialists and other leaders in the watch world discuss the watchmaker and his art.

 

 

According to Jonathan Hills, director of ‘Clocks and Barometers, London’ George Daniels shaped the watch making industry massively.

He created an inspiration to generation of young independent watch makers quoted by Daryn Schnipper, Chairman of Watches New York.

George Daniels was awarded the Gold Medal of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers; the Gold Medal of the British Horological Institute; the Gold Medal of the City of London; and the Kullberg Medal of the Stockholm Watchmakers’ Guild.

If you want to view the work of George Daniels more closely, his work creation of watches can be viewed at the British Museum as well as the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers Museum in London and the Beyer Museum in Switzerland.

If you would like to find out more about the Mater Watchmaker George Daniels life, you may want to read author Michael Clerizo’s latest biography George Daniels: A Master Watchmaker & His Art (Thames & Hudson; 1 edition (April 1, 2013)).