"The universe is a clock wound since the beginning of Time, ...of Everything each spiral, each galaxy, each star and planet whirls and spins it's eternal revolutions held in place by forces straining inconstant competition," "balanced, one against the other slowly, slowly, running down." "Some philosophers have seen the image of a clock as the nearest we can come to a metaphor for perfect creation, absolute craft." "Each 'tick' immaculately geared to the next each 'tock' the answering equivalent." "Behind the face, behind the hands, is a Universe- in miniature" "The Cosmos in a casing." "Balances, bridges, escapements and stems, turning and springing, releasing and rolling," "This is the language of time." "Not 'the time' TIME." "Once upon a time, there was a man who held the Universe in his top pocket." "A universe encased in solid gold, and crafted entirely by his own two hands." "Big, plate-like hands hands that were engineered to rebore the engine of his beloved Bentley, rather than crafting beautiful, intricate timepieces." "Yet this passionate, dedicated man had the vision that was to make him Master of his trade." "He became known as the world's greatest living Watchmaker." "For George Daniels, almost any universe would have been more welcome than the one he was born into." "A childhood of Dickensian neglect and poverty." "In a crowded, unruly, unpredictable world, he became tough, inventive, sharp and strong." "And then, inexplicably, an object of great importance appears in his life, something quite magical, something that should not have been a part of the world he inhabited:" "A Pocket Watch." "It is ordered, self contained, self controlled, self regulating, and utterly beguiling." "And for the incredible journey this watch will take him on, it might as well have been dropped at his feet by a fabled white rabbit, racing onwards to another, curiouser world." "But... it didn't work" "For all its beautiful complexity, it lacked the movement that made sense of it's engineering." "So... he turned to the only other time piece available" "When he takes apart the family alarm clock it's a dangerous thing to do, because his parents use that alarm clock." "If they come home and see him doing that, he is bound to get a ferocious beating." "But he doesn't care." "He is so driven by this intense curiosity to see what is inside that clock." "It reflected his own view of life." "It was independent, it functioned without any outside interference or outside help." "Watches and clocks just stood there, ticking away." "One of George's greatest achievements was his invention of the co-axial escapement, the first new horological development in 250 years and widely accepted as the most important of the 20th Century." "It took years of focussed, intense effort to get from that first broken pocket watch to Master Watchmaker." "But his survivor's instinct and his obsession with the mechanical combined, and from unforgiving materials, he crafted his life." "As a boy," "I didn't really understand the purpose of school." "My parents were very keen that I did very well at school but I didn't really understand why." "Like wise going through school," "I had very little awareness of what went on outside of school life." "I know that at school I was always very practical:" "I always made models- balsa wood models which I enjoyed making and always trying to perfect, but it really wasn't until my father suggested that I go on the horology course in Manchester..." "We talked about restoring antique furniture and he was very keen on that." "So we applied to the school in Manchester, but unfortunately, as our application went in, they decided to cancel the course." "Forever, you know." "So, had to think again and, in the Manchester Evening News, I saw this article about the School of Horology in Manchester." "I was quite interested in that myself." "It seemed very, very good, and I came back and I mentioned it to him and he said yes, he would be interested in doing that." "He was full of enthusiasm." "My first day at college was really my best day of education ever." "It was fantastic." "Really, my life started at that point, that was a real awakening I suppose." "And from that moment onwards I knew that this was going to be my life:" "Watches, or clocks." "I didn't know what at that point but I knew it was going to be one of those two." "After he'd only been at this Horology School for about a week, and he was full of enthusiasm, he'd skeletonised this pocket watch, which I thought, you know, was pretty keen" " he'd done it all in his spare time- then one evening he wanted to have a look at a clock." "So he found one of ours, and he sort of took it to pieces, took the plates apart, all the wheels dropped out, about eight wheels, with pinions on each end, fitting between the plates." "So I said 'That's very good, but what are you going to do now Roger?" "'" "'I don't know!" "' he said." "'Well I suggest you put it together.'" " Knowing that he wouldn't be able to do this." "But he picked up one plate in his lefthand, and just picked these wheels up, 'that one goes there, that one goes there... 'and that one goes there...' all eight wheels went in, and then he just shut it." "Every wheel had gone into the right pinion hole." "So it seemed the restless young schoolboy who was so unsure of his future, had stumbled upon his destiny." "All great watchmakers are historians." "All great watchmakers are historians." "All great watchmakers know what came before them, and they tease out of that knowledge a way forward for themselves." "It starts with the sun." "The great 'sky clock' was the first regulator, marking the time when men could hunt, fish, plant, or harvest." "Its time in the heavens determined by the seasons." "But as soon as the regularity of these phases was noted, they were measured." "And as soon as measured, put to use." "As every nation developed, newer technologies were needed." "In navigation, clocks became symbolic of mankind's ability to conquer the natural world." "In England, ships were being lost at sea, well, even around the world were being lost at sea." "A man called John Harrison, a very famous English watchmaker, he managed to create the very first accurate timekeepers, which enabled navigators to locate their position at sea." "But as societies advanced, as things improved, from the ships in the 1600's and through to industrial revolution, when the railways came, then obviously, to have a time base was important across the meridian and in time zones" "so everybody knew that time was the same." "As industrialisation took hold, the mechanisation of human life took over and time became the possession of the factory owner." "Lengths of days were irrelevant:" "It was hours worked that mattered." "And suddenly, your common man needed to make sure he was at work on time and that's where mass production started." "And so for the common man, they became common place." "Whatever symbolic influence they could claim was reduced still further with digital devices that could tell the time within millionths of a second, using a bit of quartz and a battery." "The mechanical timepiece was made redundant." "From looking at the sky to gauge our place in the day, we can see the time anywhere." "We are pursued by beeps and digits, mobiles and tablets," "PCs and computers, all of them remote devices clicking precisely, showing the numbers that equate to the time." "And yet..." "The position of the hands on the face, is a far more instinctive statement of the time." "They represent the cyclical nature of it all, from the turning sun to all its sons:" "The days, the weeks the seasons, our lives and deaths." "Time ticks in our veins." "But the success of the digital revolution was overwhelming." "It takes a particular kind of cussedness to change the way mankind is moving." "After seeing the world of mechanical watches brought close to dissolution," "George Daniels decided that the world was wrong and almost single handedly he revived the craft of creating handmade timepieces." "He started repairing, restoring, became an agent for Breguet in London, and actually made Breguet clocks." "He made two 3-wheel clocks:" "Very, very sought after." "Abraham-Louis Breguet was a very famous French watchmaker." "I suppose he saw the quality of Breguet's work and he thought he could improve on it which quite clearly he did with the double wheel escapement and the co-axial escapement." "A timepiece has it's own ticking heart:" "The escapement." "A life-giving mechanism of balance wheels and levers that transfer energy to the time-keeping elements of the machine." "They bring it to life." "Many great watchmakers have tried to perfect this device, not only to make this heart stronger and more stable but to make clocks and watches more and more accurate." "For two hundred and fifty years it was Mudge's lever escapement that reigned supreme." "That is, until George Daniels decided he could do better..." "You're hard at work I see!" "Can you tell me how you go about all this?" "Well, it depends on a variety of circumstances, and of course first, one needs to have the incentive to make a watch and usually one thinks of a new idea or an innovation that might help effect an improvement in rate." " Those are ruby jewels?" " Ruby jewels, yes." "I make those on this little machine over here, cut them to my own shapes." "This tooth is locked on the locking stone, the balance will turn to the right, carry the lever with it, unlock this wheel, which will fall onto that stone, while the tooth here will fall onto that impulse pallet." "So, it's a fairly fast moving, complex action." "But I think it will add charm to the watch when it's completed." "Totally unique George!" "Well, it is unique, one only hopes that it proves beneficial in the end." "You see here are the basic components..." "George realised that there was a fundamental flaw with the lever escapement, which is used in all mechanical watches to date." "And the main problem with the lever escapement is that it requires lubrication in order for it to function correctly." "You do figure all the angles" "Well that's vitally important" "Precision timekeeping only comes from meticulously observing certain functions of the escapement, if you don't do that, the watch won't give off it's best performance." "The problem with all lubrication is that after time its condition will deteriorate." "Eventually the tooth will find it harder to push through the thickening oil." "And, because it's now harder to push through, it'll affect the rate of timekeeping of the watch." "So George saw this as being the major problem with the lever escapement and what he set about doing was trying to redesign an escapement to avoid this sliding action." "George, spent a lot of time reviving the mechanical watch industry." "And now, the majority of Omega watches throughout the world have got George's co-axial escapement." "I was fortunate enough to meet him in the 1960s when I first started my career with a firm called Camerer Cuss and Company." "I met George when he used to come in and talk to old Mr Cuss about watches and all sorts of things." "So I was thrilled when I eventually joined Sotheby's in the late 1970s to find George was the consultant and we were able to start up our relationship again." "He would regularly come in and have a chat about his clocks and his watches and his cars as well." "He'd often bring a watch that he'd just made to show us." "It was thrilling!" "We'd all say" "'Oh what have you got George?" "What's in that pocket?" "'" "It's the fact that he's the first person for so long to have produced everything;" "every part of the watch, I believe, apart from the springs but everything else:" "The dials, the cases, the movements." "Nobody else has done that." "No, it's quite remarkable." "Especially as they were such complicated watches." "I think the ferociousness that George applied to work, comes from his childhood." "It was a way he escaped the violence, he escaped hunger, he escaped abuse." "He just disappeared into work." "It's a lonely job." "If you look at Riversdale, when George lived in Riversdale all by himself, cooked his meal in the evening, watched his television, had lots of visitors, the house was always alive in that respect." "But when he was in the workshop- no." "Dedicated." "Sit in the workshop by himself, fan heater on, and work." "And that's how he did it." "George has been heralded as a genius, a pioneer with a visionary spirit." "The recipient of countless medals and awards from his peers," "Daniels now ranks among the horological greats that he himself was once in awe of." "He single-handedly influenced the entire horological industry and will go down in history as one of the Greatest Watchmakers of all time." "I first met George when I was at the college in Manchester, studying to be a watch and clock repairer and at that point I didn't think it was possible for one person to make a watch." "George came along, and he brought out this wonderful pocket watch, 'The SpaceTraveller' and, on looking at this piece, you know, I just thought" "'What an incredible achievement!" "How on earth is it possible?" "'" "Actually, my father, he bought me for that Christmas, a copy of George's book 'Watchmaking'." "In it, it tells you how to make a pocket watch from start to finish." "On reading the book from cover to cover several times" "I finally realised " "I mean, the book is written so well and it's so easy to understand, but I thought well, if George could make a watch, then surely I could make a watch?" "I approached George and asked if he would apprentice me." "Anyway, he invited me over to the Island, told me that he wouldn't, but nevertheless encouraged me and said" "'If you want to make watches, go away and start working on one of your own'" "He said nobody taught him to do it, so it is possible." "Upon completing college" "Roger went to work at Tag Heuer and likewise, a year later, I went and joined him there." "After working full time probably for 18 months he went to the company asked to reduce his hours to 2 or 3 days a week, to concentrate on the completion of his first pocket watch." "Unfortunately, they declined his offer." "So he literally left, and he found trade work to fill the gaps and earn the money, and he completed that first pocket watch when he was 22, which was a 'tourbillon', and that really is unheard of." "Roger is very precise." "He's got endless patience, sort of an abnormal degree of patience!" "When he was at home, when he'd qualified and he was working for a watch repair business in Bolton, in his spare time he was making a watch - this one he was hoping to take to see George Daniels." "I was just earning enough basically give my parents a bit of rent pay a loan off for equipment" "I didn't have any spare money basically, it was a very basic lifestyle." "But I needed to be cause I was working 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week" "He sets up in his parents garage, works at making a watch 3 or 4days a week, and the other days of the week he works at repairs so he can earn some money." "Now this is remarkably like what George did." "The first watch I started making in my father's garage" " I chopped a bit out of it, and made a little room only about 10 foot by 6 or 7 foot." "I'd never made components for a watch before." "But nevertheless I had George's book 'Watchmaking' to help me." "He'd spend all day making a tiny little part and then he'd come in, in the evening, and say" "'I've lost it.' I'd say 'What do you mean you've lost it?" "'" "'It's on the floor somewhere, can't find it.'" "Most people would just go out of their minds!" "'Well what are you going to do?" "'" "And he'd say 'I'll have to make it again.'" "And sometimes that happened maybe" "I'm not exaggerating!" " 2 or 3 times." "Three days totally wasted work." "He just took it all on the chin, so to speak." "It was very difficult, because" "I didn't know how to treat the materials that I had to work on." "Also, I was learning 32 individual trades which no watchmaker, other than George Daniels, and one or two others have ever learned, ever achieved." "But nevertheless a watch did come together." "I think the whole process took about 18 months." "And it was a surprise when the watch ticked... and it really only did just tick!" "Two years later he goes back to George after having spent three thousand five hundred hours making a watch." "(Roger) It only just worked really." "It was a bit hit and miss and I was nervous that it may stop while it was in George's hands." "But, anyway, he had a look at it." "But he wasn't happy." "You could just tell." "I mean, I was hoping that his face would light up and say 'Well done', but, well he was honest!" "He was a bit annoyed really, that I'd gone over there and wasted his time showing him this watch which was no good." "Now the thing worked, it told the time, you would think that would be enough?" "Not for George." "Telling the time was never enough for George." "(David Newman) George looked at it and said" "'Go away and finish it properly, it's all about finish'" "It looked handmade, not created." "George always believed you should never see the hand of the maker in any mechanical object." "The mark of the maker has to be completely washed away." "He sent me away, with a bit of a flea in my ear, and told me to make another watch." "Being told that you can't do something then I immediately want to go out and prove that I can do it." "I just wasn't prepared to let it go." "Making the first watch took a year and a half, but the second watch, I thought, well if I'm going to spend so much time learning and perfecting how to make it, then I have to make it more complicated." "And so I added a four year perpetual calendar mechanism on to it." "So it adjusts for every single month, and then it self-corrects for the long and shorts, and also it corrects for your leap year." "So it's a very complicated piece!" "But I felt that that extra complication would give me the opportunity to practice and improve the skills that" "I was so obviously lacking really." "Roger was willing to gamble with the most important thing in life-time." "He was willing to gamble that he could make a great watch." "That is an enormous gamble, particularly when you're in your early 20s and you're making tourbillons and perpetual calendars." "(Narrator) The life of a Master Watchmaker is a lonely one." "Hours upon hours, minutes upon minutes, seconds upon milliseconds, forming and soldering and turning, tempering and bleaching and buckle making, springing and timing and finishing and- well the list goes on." "And on... and on." "Everything created to a standard that Chronos himself would be pleased with." "These two men chose to dedicate almost every waking second to perfecting this ancient art." "Indeed, even in slumber they would surely dream of shaving that last slip of time loss from their latest mechanism, creating the ultimate Time Machine." "This is a skill set that devours the sunlight for those who choose to master it." "It is an art that is, ironically, timeless, but one that would have faded into the annals of history had George not taken it upon himself to 'rewind the clock' once more." "And, had the fiery, determined, young Roger not taken the bait of the challenge laid out before him, to snatch the baton waved at him, and run with it." "They shared an unshakeable obsession and an immoveable focus." "And yet, like any great pocket watch, these two characters have more layers and levels to their complication than you might at first think." "He did say, that when he was a watchmaker, a man learning the trade repairing watches, he had few friends." "As soon as he bought a vintage Bentley, he had a hundred friends." "Oh!" "Rebuild cars?" "He was skilled at the workbench making watches but he's just as skilled repairing Bentleys." "He was dedicated in everything he did" "Whether it was cars, motorbikes, watches, clocks or writing." "George would buy a car, which you and I would accept as being perfect, and would rebuild it." "He didn't want any hiccups along the way, he wanted to have a perfect car." "He didn't win a lot of races, but every race he took part in, they were fun." "He would nearly always end up sideways on the grass, spinning." "'Fear' was something that George Daniels actually didn't recognise." "It was very hard keeping up with George in this car if you had something not quite as fast  he was gone, like the wind." "We had some very good outings together and some hair-raising experiences." "The nearest I've ever come to death, I think, is being driven in the Itala by George Daniels!" "But that was George." "He just didn't go out there to win, he went out there for the camaraderie, the fun." "It's a privilege to drive these wonderful machines." "(Narrator) The watchmaker openly professed that he did not have the necessary patience required to give personal instruction." "He claimed it was because he worked too quickly." "He did not want the burden of an apprentice." "Disparaging about what he saw as the pervading philosophy of a '9 to 5'culture," "George always believed that success required great application and total disregard of the passing hours." "And yet, somewhere not too far away, one determined young man, evidently cut from a similar cloth, refused to take 'No' for an answer." "The second watch that I made was the tourbillon pocket watch and it had a perpetual calendar on it." "It was that watch that I was making and remaking over a five and half year period, and basically, at the end of the first year," "I found that the components that I'd just recently made were of a far poorer quality, so I'd go back to the beginning of the watch and remake it." "Eventually - well, I think my parents were running out of patience with me because I was still living and working at home, and I think I'd also got to the stage where I knew I just couldn't physically improve on what I was making." "The quality of the parts I was very happy with." "So it came to the time when I had to contact George, and arrange another visit to the Isle of Man to show him the watch." "I think in my mind, I'd sort of thought that if this didn't work, if this watch wasn't right, then really, watchmaking for me was sort of finished." "I knew I couldn't really physically improve on that so a lot hung on this particular meeting." "I arrived at the allotted time at the house, and he invited me in, into his kitchen, where he does all his paper work;" "this big desk where all his papers were spread out, and he just told me to stand and wait by the door there." "Anyway, he continued doing his paperwork, shuffling bits of paper around and didn't say anything to me." "And that continued for about five or ten minutes." "Eventually he said 'Right!" "Let's look at this watch.'" "So he said 'Follow me'." "We left the house and walked down to the workshop." "On the way, he said:" "'Your first watch was terrible, wasn't it?" "', he said:'I think you knew it was terrible, ...I don't know what you were doing trying to show it to me, ...what were you trying to prove?" "' how do you reply to that?" "!" "I thought 'this isn't good!" "'" "But anyway, we got into the workshop," "I followed him in here, and George sat down at the bench, there and I basically just stood sort of to his left, and I put the watch down there, where that pen is." "And he opened the box." "He wasn't very impressed with the box, he isn't impressed with boxes." "He took out the pocket watch and he just held it in his hand, he put his glasses on and his magnifying glass, and he just turned it over in his hands, and looked at it." "And then he said:" "'Who made the pocket watch case for you?" "'" "So I said:'I did'." "Than he turned it around and he looked and the dial, and he said:'Where did you get the dial made?" "'" "So I said:'Well I made the dial'." "And he turned it around a bit more, then he opened the back of the watch- at this point my heart was just pumping ten to the dozen, you know?" "I mean, this was the moment really." "Then he looked at the mechanism and he said:" "'Who made the tourbillon carriage for you?" "'" "So I said:'I did'." "Then he looked at the escape wheel and said:" "'Very nice escape wheel, where did you get that from?" "'" "So I said:'I made it George!" "'" "And with that, he just snapped the back to, put the watch down, stood up, and he said:'Congratulations, you're a watchmaker!" "'" "I didn't listen to anything he said for the next 15 or 20 minutes as he just paraded around the workshop, talking really animatedly and I've never seen this man like that!" "He was just talking about watches, horology and his work, and my possible future." "My mind was just whirling away, you know?" "Here was the end of a seven, a seven and a half year sort of quest, to prove to this man that I could make a watch." "That was something special." "And so it seemed the solitary watchmaker was finally relenting." "He gained a worthy apprentice to join him on his journey, with whom he could share his ancient wisdom - the secret of Time." "In the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man stands at the very centre of the British Isles." "It is independent in attitude, as much as by constitution." "And has been quietly radical for over a thousand years." "The past breathes through the hills, and the shores and the soil." "Upon the sails of their dragon ships, the Norse settlers brought with them the Triskellion symbol, which is, to this day, embroidered on the Island's flags as the Three Legs of Man." "It denotes a turning sun - as apt a metaphor as any watchmaker could wish for." "It is a symbol which is engraved on each of Roger's watches." "Perhaps it was the sum of all its parts and paradoxes that made the Isle of Man the perfect home." "Or perhaps George Daniels, Master Watchmaker, and Keeper of Time, was simply seduced by the Islanders' most loved phrase:" "'Traa Dy Liaoor', meaning:'Time Enough'." "In 1999," "George started the Millennium Project, and asked Roger to come to the Island and assist." "I think we were in France at the time." "He rang up and said George had been on the phone," "George Daniels, offered him a job, and he said:'I've accepted' and I said: 'That's great!" "'" "Well it really was, because I didn't think that would ever happen." "Obviously due to his age he needed the help, but also he wanted to pass on the experiences and the skills which he'd developed over the years." "George had invented this escapement which Omega had taken on board, and he wanted to create a series of watches around this, this new invention of his." "And so I came over to the Isle of Man and started work on assisting George." "He saw in Roger obsession, gambler, and rebel." "And that is what he saw in himself as well." "So, seeing that in Roger, was very comforting for George, knowing there was another generation after him." "It's like that scene in 'Star Wars', you know?" "Where Yoda says 'No it's alright, there will be another' when Luke Skywalker goes off" "George looked at Roger and said:'My God, there's another generation, isn't that wonderful.'" "Obviously, there was a huge age gap." "He was 72 and I was 28 when I arrived here." "So our lives were very, very different." "There was a lot of banter:" "He always used to refer to me, when things weren't going well, as" "'Smith of Bolton'," "And then, obviously he referred to himself as 'Daniels of London' and that sort of says it all really, doesn't it?" "!" "'George?" "I was wondering if you could have look at this please?" "I'm having a few difficulties with the click'" "The first nine months were incredibly intense," "I mean, really just full on." "At the time he was 72 I think, but he was still putting in full days, he expected me to put in even longer hours." "He basically took me around the workshop, showing me every single bit of equipment and just teaching me how to use it to the standard that he required." "The normal working day didn't apply to George." "He got up at 6 o'clock in the morning, went into his workshop, and came out at 10 or 11 o'clock at night." "Few hours sleep, back in the workshop." "Roger worked for George for five or so years, in the workshop, sitting next door to him, learning all the time." "And under the watchful eye of George." "Roger will tell you about the time he had making dials and how George used to reject them, and say:" "'Go away, that's not good' yet to most people's eyes they were perfect." "'So where do you want the point of engagement?" "'" "(Roger) It was a great experience, probably the finest finishing school you could wish for working with the great man himself." "Watchmaking is a trade, a craft, an art, profession, it's all those things." "It's always passed from an individual, a Master Watchmaker, to apprentices." "It's always been done that way." "Two hundred years ago, apprentices didn't just learn how to make watches from Master watchmakers, they would learn about finance, how to manage their own workshop, they would learn how to dress, they would learn the social mores of their time," "the Watchmaker might even find his apprentice a wife." "Now, all that has disappeared and the only thing we're left with is pure education." "The Master Watchmaker teaching the apprentice how to go about making a watch." "And that's been replaced by watch schools." "But it existed in the relationship between George and Roger Smith, and it's very very important that it did." "This is George's bench and really, in my view, it's probably one of the most iconic benches in the world." "I mean, every single watch that George made was made at this bench." "This bench was down in London, it moved over here to the Isle of Man, the Co-Axial Escapement was built on this bench, and many other of his incredible pieces." "All the hand tools all around the back, plenty of files for all the components and so on, and of course his infamous glasses and eyeglass." "What George wanted out of me was to be able to make his watches to the standard he required." "So it was serious work." "I obviously wanted to, you know, wanted to make the very best I could and if I could be accepted by George, then really you know, I hoped that my future would be a little bit easier." "For me, when I was here in the workshop," "I kept fairly quiet and just soaked everything up." "I was like a big sponge really." "And if I wasn't working, we used to often go out to the pub for lunch," "I'm afraid I just barraged him with questions about his whole life." "I wanted to get as much out of the whole experience as he probably did from me." "So it was a good two-way relationship." "George proved it could be done, he proved that, in this age, when we have all of these big brands with all this money behind them, you can still be an independent watchmaker." "Our entire lives are structured around time." "We take it for granted," "Minute after minute, hour after hour, year after year." "What type of man dedicates his life to taking this human concept and creating its physical reality?" "And then elevating watchmaking beyond this, into an art form?" "George was all about perfection and the best quality, and Roger's the same, you can see it in Roger's work now." "He was always incredibly demanding." "He was always aware of the fact that he was the best and he expected the best from everyone else." "I'm afraid, there's always this obsessive streak that I have that just says:" "When I finish the next watch, that little component will be better." "Or, there's a little mark there," "I don't think anybody else would notice it, but I notice it and it's put in the memory bank." "So the next piece is... you're always trying for perfection." "I don't think with this job you're every totally happy!" "There's something we have to bear in mind about Roger," "He's 42 years old today" " it's 2012, I think it's 42 or maybe 43 - how old was George when he sat down and made his first watch?" "42." "Now, Roger's been making watches for 20 years." "What's going to happen over the next 20 years?" "What is Roger going to do?" "So Roger's got a long way to go, but I'm sure it's going to be very interesting." "And it is not going to be a slavish imitation of George, it hasn't been so far," "I'm sure it won't be in the future." "I'm certainly similar in some areas, but not all" "I mean George was quite an extraordinary man" "Very big shoes to fill." "To do what these individuals do, whether it's Roger or George or other independents, it requires a huge amount of dedication, and perseverance, and a certain personality, because one is on one's own for a large amount of time." "When I was learning about horology," "I used to stand behind George, and just watch, don't enter into conversation." "Ask questions afterwards, because you just see the dedication of one man." "Roger works in the workshop with other people, most other watchmakers do, but George has only ever worked in the workshop by himself, or with Roger." "For me, the ultimate came when one day he took me out for lunch to the pub, and he asked if I would assist him in making this Anniversary wristwatch, and that, for me, was a turning point," "knowing that he could trust me to make a watch for him." "And that's, yes, been wonderful." "The last twenty odd years, all I've thought about is trying to create what we're now doing." "It's been a total obsession." "And it's been at the consequence of everything else in my life really." "I don't think you're ever really satisfied with what you've achieved." "You know, it's always a continual quest." "Now we're increasing the size of my workshop and taking on new watchmakers, it's always the next challenge really." "And I think that's what makes it exciting." "As one gets older, one is very aware that one has to live every day, and one of my mottos in life is 'Carpe Diem'" "'Seize the moment'." "I think it's very important to seize the moment of time and not let that time be wasted." "And I think - it sounds a bit cheesy!" " But I think" "'Time' is too precious to be wasted on a cheap wristwatch." "You can go and buy for a watch for a couple of quid, but George's watches were actually works of art, to look at them, to gaze into George's watches is like gazing into his very soul." "Every single part is George, they are so beautiful." "A lot of things today in the society we live in are very disposable, you know, you buy it, it stops working, you throw it away." "These watches are built in such a way that hopefully they will last forever, even when Roger and George are long gone." "They can be serviced by any good watchmaker, my children, or my children's children can take them along, and so they'll stand the passage of time." "That's important." "I don't think his life was smooth, he actually drove himself." "There was stress in his life at times, but he got over it, he was a very strong man, don't forget that he probably nearly died 4 or 5 times from every disease known to man, but he got over them" "because he had this courage and this strength of purpose to fight on with everything." "The Anniversary piece - I started discussing it with George about three years ago." "And the intention was that, should he, should he die, then we would carry on with that project." "Fortunately he saw the piece several weeks before he passed away." "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens." "A Time to be born, and a Time to die;" "a Time to plant, and a Time to uproot;" "a Time to kill and a Time to heal;" "a Time to tear down, and a Time to build;" "a Time to weep, and a Time to laugh;" "a Time to mourn and a Time to dance;" "a Time to embrace and a Time to refrain from embracing;" "a Time to search, and a Time to give up;" "a Time to keep and a Time to throw away;" "a Time to be silent, and a Time to speak;" "a Time to love, and a Time to hate;" "a Time for war, and a Time for peace." "And a Time for peace." "One thing that George did - one of the extraordinary things that he did, was that he was the first person in history to have ever made a watch from start to finish." "You don't get that today in the industry." "Certainly, learning how to make pocket watches by hand using George's methods, I've learnt that also." "If I can pass that on to other people, through the apprentices that we now have working with me, that would be great." "If, here on the Isle of Man, we can start a small community of watchmakers, producing very small quantities of watches, but to an extra-ordinarily high level, a level that you just can't get in mass production." "If, by the time I die, I can have achieved that, then that would be great." "Every watchmaker knows that he is perfecting the measurement of his own mortality." "The turning hands on a watch are symbols for the revolutions that spin out man's span;" "the hands turn, the sun rises, apogees, sets, moons change, days renew." "It is Man that ends." "But his works can endure." "Perhaps the nicest thing, is that, in George's will, he's left the total contents of his workshop a lifetime's collection of equipment, everything in the workshop is left to Roger." "And I spoke to George before his death, about his wishes, and he was absolutely clear in his own mind that Roger was the future." "'I was George's Apprentice' - he's the only one who can say that, nobody else can ever say it." "Watch this space, you'll see him rise to the levels of George." "I suppose, for George to have said," "'You're good enough to do that'... that's... yes good, yes..."