A watch that only tells the time is about the simplest thing a watchmaker can make, and it’s tempting to assume the clever work happens elsewhere, in the world of tourbillons and chronographs.
Take the dial away, and that drastically changes. With no complication to point at and the movement laid open from the front, the finishing has to carry the watch on its own. That’s the idea behind the S8, and the reason we skeletonised it.
Our S3 Mk2 and S3 Deadbeat Seconds were both GPHG finalists. However, at 42mm, the question that always followed was whether we’d make something smaller in the same spirit. The S8 is our answer. It’s 39mm in diameter and 8mm thick. Our S5 was the same diameter, and it taught us how well that size wears.
Some of the S3’s character comes with it. Where the S3 has a large wheel at 1 o’clock, the S8 has its ratchet wheel, the toothed wheel the crown turns as you wind, skeletonised so the wheels around it stay in view. A smaller case doesn’t mean a smaller view, either. We maximised the dial opening to show off as much of the S8 calibre as possible.
One watchmaker, start to finish
Skeletonising a movement takes metal away, but it adds work. Every opening leaves an edge, and every edge has to be finished. On the S8, the wheels and bridges are all bevelled by hand, each edge cut to a narrow angle and polished, with sharp internal corners that catch the light. Black polishing picks out the details, a mirror finish so flat it looks black from most angles. The rest of the movement is frosted, a fine matt texture that provides contrast so that the polished edges stand out.
Each S8 is built by one watchmaker from start to finish. Finishing and assembly take around eight weeks, roughly twice as long as an S3 Deadbeat Seconds. The same watchmaker plates the parts and makes the hands for that watch at the bench. The first two prototypes were lovingly built by Stuart Smith and Alex Downing.
“This watch is about our watchmakers,” says David Brailsford, co-founder of Garrick. “It’s a window onto everything they’ve learned over the years, so people can see it for themselves rather than take our word for it.”
A needle and a microscope
The chapter ring, the separate ring carrying the hour markers, is frosted German silver, engraved and filled with ink. On steel, we’d fill the engraving and spin the ring on a lathe to clear the excess. German silver won’t allow it: ink stains it for good, and the frosted surface wicks ink away from the engraving. So each ring is filled by hand, with a needle, under a microscope.
The serial number gets the same treatment. It sits on its own disc at about 11 o’clock, turned on a lathe, engraved, filled, and hand-bevelled before it’s fitted. Like most of this watch, it really rewards a closer look.
Left to the owner
The S8 calibre is a new manual-wind movement designed for this watch, with ~60 hours of power reserve and no rotor across the back to block the view. Neither the movement nor the case is engraved, so the owner decides what goes on the caseback.
Like every Garrick, the S8 is built to order, and most of what you see is the owner’s choice. The movement can be silver or dark grey rhodium, or yellow or pink gold, with contrasting wheels and balance. The hands can be polished, heat-blued, or heat-purpled, and the case is 904L steel, polished or frosted, with precious metal available on request.
It’s one of the simplest watches we make, and the hardest we’ve ever built. We think that’s the right way round.
