Independents

Tim Jackson
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It is traditional "English finishing"....

Scott,
One of the often unknown facts about Roger, is that he has never worked in the watchmaking world in Switzerland. Quite rare even in today's Independent world. Marco Lang might also be the other fellow I know who has not. Originally taught in Manchester at a watchmaking school, he then remained in England until, he was granted an apprentice position with the late Dr. Daniels after making his own pocket watch, the second effort.
Since then he has fine tuned his craft on the Isle of Man, initially under the watchful eye of Dr. Daniels, then he went on to improve the Daniels co-axial escapement, by making the escape wheel better, a single piece rather than two, and this had Dr. Daniels' blessing and is certainly why he is producing the Daniels 35th Anniversary pieces for the lucky few who will get one.

English hand finished watches were never done like the Swiss. They also pre-dated Swiss watchmaking by several years, and I suspect the style was taken as a bit sober and English, by the continentals, who created a slightly more flamboyant style of finish, to differentiate their watches also.
On this last point if someone knows exactly why, please correct this opinion of mine.

Roger's work is superlative and in the annals of hand made watchmaking, will surely receive the accolades in time as his work gets a bit better known.

He is also a tremendously good guy and a pleasure to meet. One gets the feeling that he was probably a watchmaker in another life time!

Cheers,
Tim