George Daniels. An exceptional, fine and rare 18K gold Limited Series automatic centre seconds wristwatch with co-axial escapement

Millennium, Made in 1999

Footnotes

Dr. George Daniels CBE (1926-2011) was a true horologist with a passion that overcame all the turmoil that befell the watch industry in the 1970's. George came out of it a game changer, elder statesman, mentor to many influential watch producers and a national treasure.

Considered as one of the greatest watchmakers of the 20th Century, George struggled for more than two decades to persuade many of the Swiss watch brands that his revolutionary Co-Axial escapement – designed to run unaffected by the deterioration of its lubricant – was possibly the greatest advance in horology since Thomas Mudge invented the lever escapement over 250 years ago. Eventually, he was proved correct and Omega adopted the Co-Axial design introducing it into select models at the Basel Fair in 1999. To celebrate this monumental deal, George, along with his apprentice Roger Smith, set about creating the Millennium wristwatch series.

The Millennium was created over a period of 3 years with delivery made in 1999 ahead of the new millennium. This was the first collaboration between George and Roger and each watch was painstakingly hand-finished by the two of them in what is considered as an 'English style'. With just 48 examples made in yellow gold it is difficult to overestimate just how important these watches are especially when considering the current example was the 9th watch created by George in the series. To take horology forward by a greater step than anyone else has done since Thomas Mudge in 1755 is quite simply phenomenal.

At a time when the stock of independent makers seems to be sky rocketing, the current lot offers a fantastic opportunity to own a significant part of contemporary watchmaking history.