George Daniels used to occasionally eat out at the Riverside Studios in Laxey Isle of Man, and by coincidence we met there. He told me that he was having a small birthday party at his house, and would like to engage a small trio of piano , double bass and drums to entertain his guests. The engagement was fixed, and in due course he entertained his guests with his wit and humour, until a break in the music enabled him to grab my arm, and lead me into his adjoining workshops, where to my surprise there a Le Mans winning Bentley motor car, and he passed me a small ceramic dish, about the size of an ashtray, and an eyeglass. " That dish contains a whole weeks' work," he said and when I examined the small pieces in the bottom of the tray using the eyeglass, I was very surprised to find a number of tiny gearwheels, made with exquisite detail. We talked for quite a while about engineering, and eventually the party ended, and we all went home. I last met him on the Isle of Man Steam Packet boat, travelling towards Liverpool, where the Bentley was being driven single handedly all the way to Le Mans in France for a few demonstration laps in about 1988. Genius is an understatement in describing the influence of George Daniels.He inspired me to design , make, and calibrate a set of racing fuel injectors for a vintage Maserati, which eventually were Patented in forty countries.
anthony williams Quite a influential man and these kinds of engineering feats he seems to have been working on is sadly underappreciated but on the bright side, I guess youtube etc have made me and others find out more of it. I also think the use of three types of energy in the Seiko Spring Drive to play on the strenghts of each is on a similar engineering level. Its a good time to be an engineer with a history interest 😀
I guess im randomly asking but does anyone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account..? I was stupid lost the password. I would appreciate any tips you can give me
46:50 I treated myself to my dream watch, a 2022 Omega Seamaster. Its such a treat to know it has this escapement inside designed by a legend of English watchmaking
Genius at work. As en engineer I am in admiration. Making the best with what's available to you is what defines genius. The mechanical watch escapement is the greatest challenge faced by watchmakers. This is what defines the precision of a watch hence all the extreme complications like tourbillons, rotating tourbillons and the like. Any mechanical watch primary function (i.e. displaying the correct time) is determined by the escapement. Mr. Daniels work and genius brought this device as far as it can probably go using techniques available for centuries. The next level is Zenith's silicon oscillator still mechanical but using technologies not previously available and not really serviceable and of course Seiko's Spring Drive which resolves all issues in one shot and from my engineering perspective is way up there with Mr. Daniels co-axial escapement.
I regret not knowing of this man and his contribution to horology until quite recently. Being of modest means i can only read his books and marvel at this mans genius
This is incredible. One of the great things about horology, nothing much changes. These advancements are still "new" in a sense that watchmaking has been around for such a long time but his work is still extremely relevant today. One thing really struck me, a watch came back after just over a month and was only running a second slow. Obviously a fluke but what he said is that even though it was a fluke and one must not expect it, a bad watch couldn't do it and he knew he was onto something. Wow.
It seems the whole idea of the 'Co-Axial' escapement is to give each impulse on the line of centres, this is why Daniels stated that it didn't need oil on the pallets. But compared to the lever or detent escapement there is a lot going on there......
Brilliant idea to use tiny bimetallic strips within the balance wheel, to shift weight towards or away from the centre of rotation, dependant on heat, in order to thermo compensate.
Remarkable man - but he says he start making watches in 1967 as a reaction the Quartz watch , but I thought they were first released in 1969 -perhaps he heard about the technology in the trade press?
The original design had the two escapement wheels concentric with one another, i.e. coaxial. But in order to fit it into a thinner watch he moved the inner escapement wheel outside the other, yet it is still called a coaxial movement. I'm wondering if anyone can explain to me how the final movement can be considered coaxial? George Daniels is one of the greats in horology and I love his coaxial movement, but am wondering about the terminology.
Amazing. This is a true renaissance man. Had he been born some 2,000 years ago he would be engineering and constructing pyramids for the great Pharos. His understanding of mechanics and physics is not only timeless but also scalable. What a treat to view this dissertation.
Well if he was so good, how was it he did not put his learnt knowledge into making the best watches that everybody could have instead of the just super wealthy. Just like Seiko! New!!
If you read his biography you will find that he had a very hard time finding anyone willing to buy in to his technology. He approached dozens of companies and nobody wanted the technology except Omega. amzn.to/2Q6qIZu
@Paul Steele... I think it obvious that his intellect and determination motivated him to create and make available a revolutionary movement. He was “reinventing the wheel” so to speak. If he wanted to make watches “everybody could have” he would have been wasting his immense talents.
Les échappements coaxiaux comme ceux d'Omega, n'apportent rien de nouveau, je l'ai et je peux vous dire que cela ne donne aucune amélioration par rapport aux échappements suisses. Le meilleur échappement suisse est celui de Lecoultre, et il dépasse de loin l'oméga coaxial. La marque oméga ne l'utilise que d'un point de vue strictement déterminant.
