Roger W. Smith
Roger W. Smith makes watches the way George Daniels did: by hand, one at a time, on the Isle of Man. The Series 2 is a 38mm manual-wind with a co-axial escapement, built substantially by a single person from raw material to finished movement. Production runs to roughly ten watches a year across the entire workshop.
What it is
Roger Smith trained under George Daniels and is one of the very few watchmakers alive who can legitimately claim that lineage. The original Series 1 established the format; the Series 2, introduced in 2011, expanded the case to 38mm and added complications depending on the specification. Each watch is substantively the work of one person, a philosophy Smith inherited directly from Daniels and has never abandoned.
Steel and gold case variants exist, and the co-axial escapement is made in-house rather than sourced from ETA. The waiting list is long and the annual output is counted in single digits per reference.
Buying notes
The secondary market for Roger W. Smith is thin and authenticity verification is genuinely difficult for buyers unfamiliar with the work. Provenance documentation matters more here than for almost any other brand: request the original paperwork and confirm the serial with the workshop before purchasing.
Condition is critical because cosmetic restoration on these dials and cases is not something most watchmakers can competently handle. Be wary of unverified complications or non-standard configurations that do not match the known production variants. A watch described as a Series 2 with a dial type or complication not documented in Smith's output history warrants deep skepticism.
Market read
Prices on the secondary market are high and largely illiquid because so few pieces change hands in any given year. Retail allocation is by direct relationship with the workshop and waiting lists are years long. When a genuine Series 2 does appear at auction it tends to find its price, but the spread between motivated sellers and patient buyers can be wide.
This is not a watch you buy expecting to flip quickly.
Service expectations
Service should go back to Roger W. Smith on the Isle of Man for the co-axial caliber made in-house. The movement architecture and finishing are not familiar to most independent watchmakers, and the workshop is the only realistic place to source proprietary components.
Contact the Roger W. Smith Co. directly to discuss service scheduling and current lead times.
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