Vertex was founded in 1916 in London by Claude Lyons, an Anglo-Swiss watchmaker who supplied British forces with mechanical pocket and trench watches during the First World War. The firm operated as a small London-based maker through the inter-war years, building a reputation for robust, no-nonsense Swiss-mechanical watches assembled in Britain for the British market.
Vertex's most consequential moment was its inclusion in the Dirty Dozen, the British Ministry of Defence W.W.W. ("Wrist Watch Waterproof") specification of 1944-45. Twelve Swiss makers were contracted to supply ~145,000 watches to British Army, RAF, and Royal Navy forces; Vertex delivered approximately 15,000 W.W.W. watches, making it one of the larger contributors. The Vertex W.W.W. is the firm's defining vintage reference.
After the war, Vertex continued in small-scale watchmaking through the 1950s-60s but slowly contracted; by the 1970s the firm had effectively ceased operations. The Vertex name lay dormant for over four decades.
In 2016, Don Cochrane, the great-grandson of the original Vertex partner Don Cochrane (the firm's mid-century commercial lead), formally revived the brand. The relaunch flagship was the M100, a faithful 36 mm reissue of the original W.W.W. specification with a modern Sellita SW210 hand-wound caliber. The M100 launched at £2,500 and sold out the initial 60-piece run within weeks.
Modern Vertex is run from London with watch assembly in Switzerland. The catalogue has expanded to include the M100A (automatic variant), M100B (bronze case), M60 AquaLion (modern dive watch), and the MP45 Bronze Pilot. Production is small (low hundreds per year) and the brand positions itself explicitly as a continuation of the W.W.W. heritage rather than as a fashion revival; sales are direct-to-consumer through vertex-watches.com plus a small London showroom.
