# Smiths Watch



## phil hill (Jul 8, 2010)

Hi,

I've got a gold Smiths watch with 1956 engraved on the back (along with my Grandfather's name) - I think it was 25yrs for Rolls Royce. How do I find out more about it?


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## Rotundus (May 7, 2012)

phil hill said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've got a gold Smiths watch with 1956 engraved on the back (along with my Grandfather's name) - I think it was 25yrs for Rolls Royce. How do I find out more about it?


post a picture up here and the most obvious other step would be google.also the search feature on this site for threads containg smiths watches.


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## phil hill (Jul 8, 2010)

Thanks. I need to put a pic of my dads zenith (see other post) so I'll try and do them together.

Bear with me as I'm new!

Cheers


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

A gold SMITHS from 1956 would have been made at Cheltenham in part of the Smiths factory there - a very early version of a dust free "clean room" - slight positive air pressure to try and keep dust out. :yes:

Gold SMITHS were a very popular choice for retiral/long service awards from British companies, a "support British Industry" ethos which has nowadays all but disappeared. You may be able to find out more from RR if you contact them direct, they are the type of company who may still have records as far back as the fifties. 

The high end SMITHS could hold it's own with most of the Swiss products of the day, and was constructed using similar techniques and expertise - but the "kudos" of ownership of a Swiss piece often blinded folks to the superb quality of these watches. :notworthy:

I, and many otheres, would have one anytime! :yes:


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## phil hill (Jul 8, 2010)

Thanks for the info. My grandfather worked at filton in bristol, so Cheltenham would seem a good bet. Cheers phil


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Phil, AFAIK, *ALL* of SMITHS high end were *originally* made at Cheltenham in a facility which partially approximated a clean room - however, the majority of Smiths watches were products of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company in Wales (Google for the history) and later high end may have transferred production to there. :yes:

At one time Smiths had 27 production factories in the UK, not all watches of course, but clocks, car instruments, time switches, alarm clocks, aerospace and more. There were about 26,000 employees when I worked for them, and odd pockets of watch production occurred in different plants where relevant skills could be utilised. *BIG* company and one of the few if not the only company in the world who made everything from scratch for their watch production - except hairsprings and some balance wheels. Suffered in the quartz revolution from the dinosaur mentality and didn't really change fast enough to keep going in the timekeeping field!


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## phil hill (Jul 8, 2010)

Wow really glad I posted! I just thought I had an old gold watch with a bit of sentiment attached.

Many thanks for enlightening me!


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