To readers of this website, Smiths is synonymous with timepieces, but in truth timepieces formed a tiny fraction of Smiths' output; indeed in 1966, S Smith & Sons Ltd became Smiths Industries to better represent their vast engineering presence. There are two comprehensive histories of Smiths: the Smiths Group official centennial history, "A long time in making" by Dr James Nye (2014) and a privately researched and published "S Smiths & Sons Ltd - The Golden Years" by Barry M Jones (2013) - the latter also analyses many of the companies diverse products (it would be easier to list what Smiths were not involved in)! Barrie Smith's "Smiths Watches" provides a useful, if incomplete, compendium of Smiths' catalogues and advertising.

Jewellers and Diamond-merchants.

Smiths' origins date to around 1850 to Samuel Smith as a jeweller and diamond merchant centered on Newington Causeway, south London, also marketing clocks, pocket-watches, spectacles and magic-lanterns. All their products were bought in - timepieces used English, Swiss or German movements... albeit signed S Smith & Son. And so it remained until 1929 when the Smith family sold the retail side to concentrate on their massive, publicly owned Motor Accessories business, whose origins go back to 1904 with their first speedometer… and soon branched out into carburettors, and aircraft instruments; it was at this point that Smiths became manufacturers in their own right. Having just sold their retail side in 1929, Allan Gordon Smith acquired Williamsons to fulfil his dream of making electric clocks... as so began their 'Sectric' business and, using Williamson's famous Astral and Empire movements, the Smiths English Clocks business became clockmakers in their own right. Smiths then acquired Enfield and other fledgling clockmakers... but though Williamsons produced the high grade Astral pocket-watch, there is no indication that Smiths continued its production although in 1938 Smiths did begin development of a new pocket-watch sized calibre, of which little is known.

Myths and legends

The 1920s/30s remain a bit of grey area which encourages over enthusiastic speculation. Indeed, identical time-pieces carry either the S Smith & Son Ltd (Trafalgar Square) or S Smiths & Sons (MA) Ltd legend (note plural 'Sons') suggesting MA was marketing since 1913, timepieces to the motoring, aviation and military markets alongside the family retail business - this is poorly recorded. Indeed in the 1930s Smiths (MA) was marketing Swiss Landeron chronograph wristwatches, probably as an aircraft navigation aid (Smiths was pioneering auto-pilots). The other major myth and legend concerns Robert Lenoir and Smiths' war-time development of pocket-, stop- and wrist-watches... and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Robert Lenoir, a Frenchman was trained in horology at Le Locle and worked for both Jaeger and LeCoultre but his Smiths connection came through Jaeger's attempts to boost adoption by the British motor industry of their speedometers. As a major competitor and aware that Lucas (Smiths' arch-rival) was interested in Jaeger, Smiths secured in 1927 a major shareholding in Jaeger's British operations... including Lenoir! To cut a long story short, Jaeger and Smiths jointly formed ABEC (All-British Escapement Co) in 1928 to produce truly British-made speedometer, car and aircraft escapes and clock-movements. Lenoir introduced novel industrial engineering techniques quite different to the Swiss methods to use unskilled labour. The claim that Smiths' later watch movements were to J-LC designs is erroneous; indeed they probably owe as much to Williamsons and Lemania for in 1938 Smiths became major government contractors in the manufacture, service and repair of, mostly, aircraft instruments and clocks.

The first contract was the casing up of J-LC Weems pattern wristwatches; these carry Smiths' SS&S contract code, but of the contract nothing is (so far) known. This was followed by contracts for manufacture of fully jewelled stop-, pocket- and wrist watches - these share a common escape pattern. The first was the stop-watch in 1940, probably inspired by the military's Lemania; then came a pocket-watch - both entered volume production, with necessary improvements, primarily for the RAF. Alas Smiths and MoS documents are very patchy! The pocket-watch based 13-ligne wrist-watch is shrouded in mystery but was almost certainly developed as a miniaturised sub-secs model (for GSTP use) but was capable of easily being converted to (a navigator's) centre-seconds; indeed war-time prototypes of both exist, but neither would have passed military trials although around 1944 the sub-secs model was authorised for production as the RAF Mk.X… - more likely to test the viability of a British watch industry. However, it is unlikely any Mk.Xs entered RAF service: indeed, Smiths' archives barely mention it! Never-the-less, 'end of military contract' Mk.Xs did enter the civilian market post-war as the 'SMITH' badged 13-ligne (28mm dial) wrist-watch. Though agricultural in quality, they are a fine, desirable watch and form the basis of much improved 12-ligne models (26 and 28mm dial) launched in late 1946. This de-flanged movement underwent a series of rapid improvements - Smiths was learning on the job!- culminating in the famous '1215' and 'De Luxe' ranges of the early 1950s. The true origin of '1215' is unknown; it was a marketing ploy generally later regarded as 12-ligne, 15-jewel... but what defined a 'De Luxe' remains a mystery!

1215 and 27CS 'De Luxe'

The sub-secs 1215 is widely regarded as Smiths' finest movement, on a par with high-grade Swiss movements (it should noted that some sub-sec models use the 8-3/4 ligne ladies calibre). These were available in various guises: 15 jewel standard (16J for Benson, 18J Garrard), plain or screw-poised balance, Breguet overcoil, shockproofed… and from 1952/3 as a centre-secs 27CS 17-jewel variant, the best of which was the final Astral based military W10 General Service watch. The Astral was a cut-price De Luxe using some semi-automated production processes - it sold in its thousands and included calendar models and an attractive skin-divers model, but by the 1970s high-grade jewelled watch production was no longer economically viable and ended in 1971 with final completion of W10 orders. The centre-secs 27CS first emerges in WW2 but underwent major redevelopment after the war alongside radical new Navigator's prototypes of c.1951 for the RAF but these failed to reach muster in Royal Observatory tests and the project was dropped leaving the forces to adopt a military variant of the De Luxe followed by a stop-balance (hack-set) Astral variant, the aforesaid W10.

'Imperial'

What did emerge from these early post-war prototypes was an entirely new 11-3/4 ligne 19-jewel c/secs movement in 1957 designed to overcome inherent flaws in the 1215 and especially the 27CS. It was designed to be more easily serviced and would ultimately include manual, automatic, sub-secs and a ladies calibre. After several attempts Smiths abandoned their own design and adopted a conventional design which produced a, short-lived, success: the sub-secs and ladies models did not materialise. Never-the-less the Imperial was a fine watch especially the solid gold Everest automatic.

Chronographs and oddities:

Smiths again offered a high-grade 2-button Landeron wrist-chronograph in the mid-1960s; this was superseded by a Valjoux based model around 1970 but both were 'Smiths' branded off-the-shelf 'trade watches' with several minor variations. Smiths also produced from c.1949 a Braille dialled, seconds-less 1215 using Swiss dial, case and beefed-up train - available the RNIB these were produced on a not-for-profit basis.

Ladies

Rarely discussed, but Smiths did produce ladies calibres. The first was the bankrupt Swiss Judex 130 which Smiths manufactured from 1954 as their Cal.300 8-3/4 ligne in sub-secs, non-secs and later centre-secs... and for gents dress watches. This was joined by Smiths' own in-house design, the Cal.200 5-1/4 x 8-34/ ligne non- and sub-secs. A proposed 11-1/4 x 7 ligne went no further.

-- under construction

*[[The Smiths Deluxe and Sir Edmund Hillary|Smiths Deluxe and Edmund Hilary]]

==Links==

*[[Great Britain]]

*[[Military Watches]]

*[[Main Page]]

Smiths

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Ingersoll

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Brenellic2000: /* Anglo-Celtic Company */

[[File:Ingersoll Watch Company.jpg|thumb]]
==Ingersoll==
The Ingersoll Watch Company is currently owned by Zeon Watches, a British subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based company Herald Group. The brand originated in the United States of America. Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a mail order business (R H Ingersoll & Bro) started in New York City in 1882 by 21-year-old Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother Charles Henry Ingersoll. The company initially sold low-cost items such as rubber stamps.

==Ingersoll Watch Company==
The first Ingersoll watches, called "Universal" were introduced in 1892, supplied by the Waterbury Clock Company. They were in reality small spring-driven clocks, about three inches diameter and over one inch thick. These were put into watchcases with pendants that carried bows and crowns like contemporary watches. The crown was not functional, the watch was wound by a captive key that hinged out, and a central wheel was used to set the hands, both accessible when the back was opened just as in a clock. At first they were sold wholesale to dealers, but later in 1892 a mail order catalogue was produced and watches were sold directly to the public.

The Waterbury watch company also initially sold the watches, but the Ingersolls soon negotiated a sole agency deal. In 1893 a smaller version of the Universal watch called the "Columbus" was made.
In 1896 Ingersoll introduced a watch called the Yankee, setting its price at $1. This made it the cheapest watch available at the time, and the first watch to be priced at one dollar; the "dollar watch" was born. It was cheaply mass-produced from stamped parts and without jewels so that it would be affordable to everyone.

By 1899 the Waterbury Clock Company were producing 8,000 of these watches per day for Ingersoll, who started advertising that 10,000 dealers carried their dollar watch. By 1910, Waterbury was producing 3,500,000 dollar watches per year for Ingersoll. Over twenty years nearly forty million dollar watches were sold, and Ingersoll coined the phrase "The watch that made the dollar famous!" Theodore Roosevelt mentioned that during his hunting trip in Africa he was described as "the man from the country where Ingersoll was produced."

In 1904 Ingersoll opened a store in London, England. In 1905 Robert sailed to England and introduced the Crown pocket watch for 5 shillings, which was the same value as $1 at the time. These were made by a British subsidiary, Ingersoll Ltd, initially assembled from imported parts, and later made entirely in their London factory. These watches were made until the late 1920s, after the American parent company had collapsed.

Ingersoll bought the Trenton Watch Company in 1908, and the bankrupt New England Watch Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, for $76,000 on November 25, 1914. By 1916, the company was producing 16,000 watches per day in 10 different models. In 1917 they produced another popular watch with 7 jewels called the Reliance. In 1919 Ingersoll developed a watch with the so-called "night design", the Radiolite with luminous dial.
In the 1930s, the company, now called Ingersoll-Waterbury manufactured the first Mickey Mouse watches. Over five million of these watches would be sold in the first 15 years of production.
==Bankruptcy==
The Ingersoll Watch Company went bankrupt in 1921 during the recession that followed World War I.
It was purchased by the Waterbury Clock Company in 1922 for $1,500,000. Waterbury Clock sold the London-based arm of the Ingersoll watch business, Ingersoll, Ltd., to its board of directors in 1930, making it a wholly British-owned enterprise. In 1944 the Waterbury Clock Company was renamed United States Time Corporation (now [[Timex]] Group USA) and continued producing Ingersoll watches in the United States through the 1950s.
==[[Anglo-Celtic Company]]==
Prompted by the war-time government, the British company, Ingersoll Ltd, joined with [[Smiths]] (S Smiths & Sons Ltd) and very briefly Vickers Armstrong in setting up the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company Ltd (est August 1945) on the Ynyscedwyn estate. This was on the outskirts of the village of Ystradgynlais, near Swansea, Wales. The first model featured the same movement as the earlier American-designed British Ingersolls, now designated calibre PY. These watches were branded Ingersoll (Triumph for export) and Smiths Empire. Wrist watches came in 1949. Ingersoll Ltd pulled out of the venture in 1969 but continued to market some Anglo-Celtic models. Between 1946 and 1980, when the factory closed down, over 30,000,000 watches were made, and exported to 60 different countries throughout the world.

They also made many character and promotional pocket watches, of many different subjects. Anglo-Celtic movements, particularly pocket- and stop-watches, were widely used by budget watchmakers in the UK (Services, Westclox, Timex) and USA (Lafayette) etc.

Anglo-Celtic ceased wrist-watch production in about 1976, but pocket- and stop-watch production continued until June 1980 at which Smiths' alarm clock business also closed. Marketing of Smiths branded timepieces, many electronic, continued until 1983 when Smiths pulled out of the industry save for their TimeGuard time control business. Very many years later the brand was licenced to others.

==Links==

*[[Great Britain]]

*[[USA]]

*[[Main Page]]

*[[Individual Watch Manufacturers]]

Smiths

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Smiths

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Brenellic2000: /* History of Smiths Watches */

Anglo-Celtic Company

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==Anglo Celtic==

At the government's instigation, the British company, [[Ingersoll]] Ltd, joined with [[Smiths]] (S Smith & Sons Ltd) and, briefly, Vickers Armstrong in setting up the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company Ltd (incorporated August 1945) on the Ynyscedwyn estate. This was on the outskirts of the village of Ystradgynlais, near Swansea, Wales. The first model featured the same movement as the earlier American-designed British [[Ingersoll|Ingersolls]], now designated calibre PY. These watches were branded Ingersoll (Triumph for export markets) and Smiths Empire. A Swiss inspired RY low-jewel pin-pallet wrist-watch was developed in 1949 later followed by in-house designs such as the versatile fully jewelled TY and final SL. Ingersoll Ltd pulled out of the venture in 1969. Anglo-Celtic's final models included budget Swiss-made models. Between 1946 and 1980, when the factory closed down, over 30,000,000 watches were made, and exported to 60 different countries throughout the world.