December 2011
We have just launched our new website:
www.robertloomes.com
for our new watches are entirely made in England:
cases, movements, dials, even the hands!
Very few people can say they have an English watch.
We still have a few of the limited edition of one hundred chronographs for sale.
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2nd November 2011 |
Above is the Stamford copper-bottomed watch (now sold out).
After years of servicing and restoring fine watches, we made our own high quality, mechanical wristwatches.
The first, steel, watches that we made sold out in a matter of weeks in December 2010. The second, much improved version also went on sale as a limited edition of 100 pieces and sold out in a short time.
The copper-bottomed watch differed in several ways:
The case is copper-plated using surgical quality copper developed in Birkinhead over a hundred years ago. The copper gives a superp chocolate-gold effect and will mellow with age. It is mildly stain resistant, so will not go green or turn your wrist green!
The movement was much refined. Only tiny tweeks to the poise and balance of the escapement, and the exact positioning of index pin and shoe, but added together make this the most accurate watch we had ever produced.
Each was tested and adjusted in six positions: dial up, dial down, crown up, down, left, right. This gives the most accurate mean rate for a watch possible without moving up to "chronometer" specifications.
In short, if an officially certified chronometer can gain up to six seconds a day (in laboratory conditions) our watch can do ten seconds a day - very good for any mechanical watch and enough to live your life by.
We tried to adjust each one so that it will gain slightly rather than lose, and each watch features "hacking" whereby when the crown is pulled out the watch will stop until it is depressed again. This makes re-setting the watch a simple matter.
The Stamford copper-bottomed watch is now sold out.
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The movement is a 22-jewel automatic, high-frequency design. We decorated the plates with traditional "cotes de geneve" stripes (engine turned stripes) and with "spotting". The edges are neatly bevelled and the screws have been blued both for contrast and for ease of use in servicing. The movement is neatly visible through an exhibition sapphire case back. |
Each watch is hand built and rigorously tested in our Stamford workshops before it goes on sale. Every one is tested and adjusted in six positions. We have the confidence that each will keep excellent time and function reliably. Our watches are guaranteed for three years but designed to last a lifetime. |
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Above is The Stamford Watch, now sold out.
A limited edition of one hundred British watches, designed and hand-built by us in Stamford. Each movement is carefully adjusted and tested in six positions.
Each is re-tested once the movement, dial, hands and case are complete. The vast majority of modern watch movements are only tested briefly before casing up but experience has taught us that our way is the right way.
The movements are signed and numbered on the automatic winding weight, clearly visible once in the case.
We tested each watch for water-resistance to 5 ATM. They were not intended to be waterproof, this is simply a good way to ensure they are completely dust-proof and should withstand getting soaked in the rain or an accidental plunge into a basin of water.
The Stamford Watch is sold out
The image below shows the first watch we produced in 2009. A limited edition of one hundred, it sold out in weeks.
We had a superb write-up from Stamford Living magazine in their December 2009 feature: "The People of St Mary's". Go to www.StamfordLiving.co.uk to see the article in full.
Likewise the Stamford Mercury's glowing write up at www.Stamford Mercury.co.uk
We have not had much time to post reviews or comments but...
" It's a superb watch (the beautifully blued hands make it wonderfully easy to read in any light) and if you would like to use any of my comments on your website then please feel free to do so. I really shouldn't wear it in everyday use, considering my work takes me into contact with some pretty heavy engineering but I do like it! I can always take it off whenever I go out into the workshops anyway...
Look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards,
D."
"Now I've had the chance to appreciate my chronograph for a couple of weeks I'd just like to say that I'm delighted with it. It really is an exquisite piece and quite breathtaking. The detail and workmanship in the movement is superb and the dial is a real work of art; so beautifully crisp and fine. The chronograph controls are positive and the winder has a pleasing feel to it. As with the original Stamford watch, the movement is beautifully quiet and the whole piece has a wonderfully unassuming elegance. To me the chronograph, with its brown leather strap, has the feel and timeless appearance of a high quality timepiece with real class and is entirely in keeping with its origins. It's a joy to wear because it's not showy and looks and feels so right! Yes, I do wear it to work (although, for obvious reasons I take it off when I go out into the workshops!)
Best wishes,"
seem typical of the responses we have had so far.
Robin. An entirely new English-made watch with English movement, dial, hands, case, glass. In fact extraordinarily English. Coming very soon. 22nd Nov 2011
