The Isle of Man's remarkable place in watchmaking history For an island measuring just 33 miles long, the Isle of Man has left a remarkable mark on the world of horology. Long before Torvion began here, the island had already become home to watchmakers whose ideas would influence mechanical watchmaking around the world. One of the earliest was John Harwood. After settling on the Isle of Man in the early 1920s, Harwood worked repairing watches and became increasingly frustrated by a common problem. Dust and moisture could enter a watch through the opening required for the winding stem. His solution was radical for its time. What if the movement of the person wearing the watch could wind it automatically? Harwood developed a self-winding wristwatch using an oscillating weight inside the movement. His invention was patented in the 1920s, and he became recognized as the originator of the first practical self-winding wristwatch. An idea developed by a watchmaker working on the Isle of Man helped change the way mechanical watches would be made and worn. Decades later another extraordinary watchmaker made the island his home. George Daniels is regarded as one of the most important horologists of the modern era. Working from his studio on the Isle of Man, Daniels created watches by hand using an extraordinary breadth of traditional watchmaking skills. But perhaps his greatest contribution was not simply the watches he made. It was an entirely new approach to one of the most fundamental parts of a mechanical watch. The co-axial escapement was developed by Daniels to reduce the sliding friction found in the traditional lever escapement. After years of persistence, his invention was eventually adopted by Omega and brought into modern series, producing mechanical watches. Daniels proved that centuries-old mechanical watchmaking could still be challenged, reconsidered, and improved. And the story did not end with him. Roger W. Smith first travelled to the Isle of Man as a young watchmaker to show Daniel a pocket watch he had made. Daniels rejected it. Smith went away and made another. Years of work later he returned, and this time Daniels told him he had become a watchmaker. Smith moved to the Isle of Man in 1998 to work alongside Daniels, and today his own workshop continues to create extraordinary mechanical watches on the island using what has become known as the Daniels Method. Three watchmakers. Three different generations. And one very small island. John Harwood challenged how a wristwatch was wound. George Daniels challenged the way a mechanical watch escapement could work. Roger W. Smith continues to develop that mechanical tradition today. Torvion does not claim their history as its own. But we are incredibly proud to be building our story in the same place. The Isle of Man has always been somewhere that thinks a little differently. Perhaps that is why it has proved such an interesting place to think about time.