Roger W. Smith trained as a watchmaker at the Manchester School of Horology and then completed an extended apprenticeship under George Daniels, the legendary British watchmaker who invented the Co-Axial escapement (later licensed to Omega for series production) and was widely considered the most important horologist of the 20th century. After completing his apprenticeship and producing his first independently-made watch (the Mark 1, presented to Daniels for evaluation), Smith was invited by Daniels to settle on the Isle of Man and continue traditional British watchmaking from a workshop near Daniels' own facility.
Smith founded the eponymous brand in 2001 with the explicit ambition of continuing the British watchmaking tradition that Daniels had revived. The Smith workshop produces complete watches with virtually every component made in-house - the only exceptions are the hairspring, mainspring, and jewels (which are sourced externally as is universal practice). Every other component including movement plates, bridges, wheels, escapements (the Daniels Co-Axial escapement), screws, hands, dials, and cases is machined and finished in the small Isle of Man workshop. This level of in-house manufacture at such small production scale is essentially unique in modern watchmaking; only one or two other contemporary makers operate at comparable levels of vertical integration.
Today Roger W. Smith produces fewer than ten complete watches per year across the Series 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 references, plus occasional single-piece bespoke commissions. Pricing starts around GBP 200,000 for the entry references and rises to GBP 500,000+ for the more complex variants. Waiting lists run several years given the production constraints. Smith remains personally involved in every watch produced, and the Isle of Man workshop is widely cited as the most genuine modern British manufacture - George Daniels passed away in 2011 and Roger W. Smith inherited his mantle as the principal continuation of the traditional British watchmaking tradition.
