Roger W. Smith — watch collection

About Roger W. Smith’s watch collection

Roger W. Smith is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished independent watchmakers working today. Born in Britain and now based on the Isle of Man, Smith trained under the late George Daniels — the horological giant who developed the co-axial escapement — and was handpicked by Daniels as his successor. Smith produces only a small number of watches each year entirely by hand, from movement to case, making his own output among the most labor-intensive and sought-after in contemporary watchmaking. His Series pieces, built on the principles Daniels established, have found their way into the hands of serious collectors worldwide and are held in the same conversation as the great complicated pocket watches of the 19th century.

Given that Smith spends his working life constructing watches at a level of craft that almost no other living person can match, his personal choice of wristwear carries a particular kind of weight. The Roger W. Smith watch collection, as far as our cameras have recorded it, centers on a Rolex Explorer 1 reference 114270 — a production watch that represents almost the philosophical opposite of what Smith makes for a living. The ref. 114270, produced between 1998 and 2010, is a clean, no-date 36mm Explorer running on Rolex's calibre 3130 self-winding movement. It is robust, legible, and deliberately uncomplicated in its presentation.

The choice is telling rather than contradictory. A man who spends his days hand-finishing components that most manufactures delegate to automated processes appears to have little interest in wearing his own résumé on his wrist. The Explorer 1 ref. 114270 is a tool watch built to perform without fuss, and for someone whose professional environment demands total concentration on the work in front of him, that reliability and restraint makes considerable practical sense.