Beginnings
Daniels was born in 1926 and grew up poor in the East End of London; he took a watch apart at five and said later that he understood from that moment what he would do. After army service he repaired and restored watches, became the authority on Breguet, and in 1969 finished his first watch, a tourbillon with a pivoted detent, every part of it made at his own bench in the way that had died out with the industrial age. He called the way of working the Daniels Method and set it out in Watchmaking in 1981, the book from which the independent watchmakers of today learned.
What he changed
The lever escapement needs oil, and oil ages. Between 1974 and 1976 Daniels designed the co-axial escapement, which pushes the balance with radial impulses that need almost no lubrication, patented it in 1980, and spent twenty years trying to persuade a Swiss company to make it; Patek Philippe and Rolex declined, and Omega launched it in 1999. His own watches, about two dozen pocket watches and a pair of wristwatches, include the Space Traveller of 1982, which shows mean and sidereal time, and sold for millions after his death.
Why it matters now
The co-axial is the first escapement to reach mass production since the lever, two centuries before, and the one-man watch Daniels revived is now a movement of its own, carried on by his only apprentice, Roger Smith, on the Isle of Man.
Worth knowingHe tested each watch by wearing it himself for years before selling it. He also collected and raced vintage Bentleys, and said old cars were every bit as interesting as old watches.
Historian’s noteThe count of his watches varies with the source, from 25 to 37, depending on whether prototypes and the Millennium series made with Roger Smith are included; “some two dozen” is used here. He was born in Sunderland, where his mother went for the birth, not in London as some accounts say.