20 Years. 100 Watches, and Counting.
The British watchmaker Roger W. Smith considers the future.
Roger W. Smith in his workshop on the Isle of Man, in Britain. The waiting time for a new R.W. Smith watch is now five years.Credit.Stephen Daniels
By Simon De Burton
April 6, 2021
Rolex does not release its production figures, but those who have tried to calculate them say they believe that the big beast of Swiss horology churns out at least 800,000 units annually from its Geneva headquarters. Divided by 365 days, that equates to an average of 2,191 watches every 24 hours.
About 900 miles away on the Isle of Man, a relative dot that the local ferry service says is just 33 miles long by 13 miles wide in the Irish Sea, the independent maker Roger W. Smith hopes this year to celebrate his 20 years in business during which time he has completed precisely 100 watches.