Three Rare George Daniels Watches to be Auctioned by Phillips in November

Last week, Phillips announced what looks like the centerpiece of their fall auction lineup: a trio of hyper rare George Daniels wristwatches that are expected to sail well into six (maybe even seven) figure territory. While we don’t expect to be bidding this fall when the watches go on sale in Geneva, it’s hard not to admire the watches themselves, and the story behind them. Daniels is a towering figure in modern watchmaking whose impact can be felt right at this moment in any number of ways, and watches (particularly wristwatches) with his name on the dial come up for sale so rarely that news of an auction like this is the type that can’t really be ignored. 

Right off the bat, one of the most interesting aspects of this sale is the way Phillips is positioning the Daniels legacy. Throughout their press presentation, they refer to him as the “Founding Father of Independent Watchmaking,” a designation I hadn’t considered prior to learning of this sale, but now find myself thinking about. Daniels, who famously made every component of his watches himself, by hand, and designed it all from scratch, seems like a throwback to an even earlier time, so it’s interesting to consider him as a bridge of sorts between the type of watchmaking that was happening in the 18th century and modern independents like the Gronefeld brothers, MB&F, or Kari Voutillainen.

Those independents also all have styles that are immediately recognizable, and I think you could say the same for the Daniels aesthetic. The style is overtly classical, but he packs a pretty incredible amount of ingenuity into his watches. While there are certainly aspects of his watchmaking that are “traditional,” there are also some pretty significant advances that bring these watches out of the 1700s and into modern territory. 

The centerpiece of the auction is the Spring Case Tourbillon, a solid gold wristwatch made by Daniels himself for his personal use, and one of only two wristwatches ever made by Daniels – all of the rest were pocket watches. That alone makes this watch historically important and quite incredible, but naturally there’s more to it than rarity. The “spring case” here refers to the hinged structure of the case that allows the wearer to easily pop the inner case out to reveal a secondary dial on the reverse side. The watch’s main dial on the front side features a silver dial with an ornate guilloche pattern, a gold chapter ring for time telling, and subsidiary dials for running seconds and power reserve. The reverse side features a calendar and an exposed one minute tourbillon. The Spring Case Tourbillon also makes use of Daniels’ co-axial escapement, without a doubt his most significant and enduring invention, having been adopted by Omega and used in the production of untold millions of watches over the last twenty years. 

The other watches in the Phillips auction have the George Daniels signature on the dial, but were not actually made by Daniels himself. Rather, they were completed by Roger W. Smith, his protege and one of the most widely admired independent watchmakers working today. First, there’s the George Daniels Anniversary watch, one of 35 produced to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the co-axial escapement, putting this watch’s year of production around 2010. While the watch was handmade by Smith, it’s a Daniels design, and features his familiar multi-dial layout and guilloche. 

The third Daniels watch in the sale is a yellow gold example of a George Daniels Millennium, produced in 1999 as part of a series of 48. These watches were meant to usher in the newest version of the co-axial escapement, and feature an Omega movement that has been heavily modified to make use of that particular Daniels invention. In terms of the visual design language, the Millennium is very similar to most other Daniels watches, but the story here is the evolution of the co-axial escapement, and the fact that it’s used within a mass produced caliber illustrates both the homemade quality of these watches and serves as a demonstration of the escapement’s functionality and the possibility that it could be adopted as a mass scale. 

The Phillips sale takes place in Geneva on November 5 and 6. As you’d expect, the estimates for these pieces are gasp-inducing, with the Millennium expected to fetch between CHF 250,000 – 500,000 and the George Daniels Anniversary has an estimate of CHF 300,000 – 600,000. The real action, though, is expected to be on the Spring Case Tourbillon, which currently has an estimate that Phillips categorizes as “in excess of CHF 1 million.” Yeah, sounds about right.