If anyone is curious enough to want to know how to build a watch, then this is the one for you. There is much to learn from this fascinating discussion between the maker, George Daniels and the eventual owner, Seth Atwood.
Wisdom to live by "Once you know what you don't want, your half way to knowing what you do want". What a wonderful person. It's always fascinating to watch someone work who truly loves what they do.
I have been wanting to watch that film since I first heard about it in "the watchmaker's apprentice", great insight into George's work! Thank you for posting Roger.
"It's a pretty fast moving, complex action, but I think it will add charm to the watch when it is completed. Of course, you won't be able to see what's happening ..." Unseen, yes, but appreciated by many. A true piece of art. Thanks for uploading.
One of a kind, every 90,years a person comes along, with innovation, and changes the concept of watchmaking, the future of the watchmaker will change time.!
There is more beauty in what the ears cannot hear and what the eyes cannot see. Most people in every nation can never come up to moving into the mental state that George Daniels operated in. Behind those drawings which are so static, are complex motions which that type of drawing can never depict, and all the motion was in George Daniel's inner mind. Those drawing seem to be the initial stages of what came later with the double escapement wheels incorporated into one coaxial system. It seems that he was doing his best to get the rotation with the circumferential pushing motion which does not imply sliding friction. Here he came close to that with two escapement wheels being driven from two individual springs, but later he did it with one coaxial escapement. I made a couple of these " enlarged" escapements out of wood to show them to my grandson and some colleagues. To get an equal power transferred in the two different directions is not easy. I do not think that there can be the same energy being transferred in the two separate actions, but the free time of the oscillating part will ensure that the oscillator achieves equal timing during the half each pallet hits its corresponding part. To think the action which George Daniels came up with, had to wait thousands of years since the development of the human mind and a few hundred years since the other great English Gentleman John Harrison came up with the grasshopper escapement. Now, Roger W Smith, another great English watchmaker will proceed where George Daniels left off. Roger is also a deep person who sees in his mind what many others do not. I love watching their ingenious and elegant work. This is the type of elegant engineering that keeps a man at the highest level of mental and physical competence with a high degree of happiness and satisfaction and combines engineering and art with some spirituality added in, to make it almost a holy endeavor walking close to God, well, a spiritual state of mind, that is synthesized in such small dimensions for other to behold, if they only open the watch!
My god what a man.equality spoken,even from a poor childhood., why didnt i designed my engines with the same philosophy. A very special person. Especially at his time.
This is amazing, when you consider that here is a self taught genius who happened to be the greatest in his field, like Henry Royce and others. What a wonderful thing that this was captured on film.
Having read George’s book, I got the impression that so obsessed was he with the work he was doing that 16-18 hour days were far from unusual and, sadly, I think that level of extreme workload and concentration literally wore him out resulting in what I think was perhaps a somewhat premature end. A great, great artisan and a one-off, the likes of which we may never see again...with all due respect to Roger Smith.
This was my favorite place as a kid. When I got my driver's license I was excited to be able to drive myself here to look at things but by then it was closed...
Thanks for sharing this video... and I like at the end, the hand finishing. Even on big parts... 4" Shaft by 48"'s long... I prefer to hand finish the last little bit... by hand. A machine is only so accurate, and many of the machines I have ran, will take more than you ask, or Dial in. So finish the last .001" by hand, get it Dead On! When you spend hours making a part, and you are at the last .001", and the machine decides to take that extra .0003" and put it under-size, like for a nice bearing fit... to the scrape it goes! Enjoy watching your work as well, and the machines you use!
Thanks for this video. Very interesting. I was talking to a Gunsmith in Birmingham about Engine turning and he said that he knew you. His work is wonderful too. Many thanks
What a fabulous wonderful craftsman you miss him so much roger. I've been watching him for some time now and each time im more and more fascinated best wishes ady , ps have any more old footage
George Daniels is one of the finest craftsman (in recent times) this world has ever seen. Elon Musk should make this required viewing for all new hires at Twitter. There are no short cuts in life.
If you imagine a normal (mechanical) watch with a lever escapement and the watch has stopped because it has not been wound, then when you wind it the watch will start to run. This is true of the lever escapement but it it not true of all different escapement designs. If you have a timepiece with a normal chronometer escapement and you allow it to run down, well winding it up again will not start the timepiece running, the escapement will remain in the locked position and it won`t run. With this George Daniels design of chronometer escapement then it will `self start` ie the watch will start to run when you wind it up.
Does anyone know of the zeroing mechanism for setting the time that daniels uses when discussing the plans for thr pocket watch ( 6:54 )? Is it similar to the flyback chrono? Are there any plans online? anywhere?
