Millennium

George Daniels invented the co-axial escapement, the most significant advancement in mechanical escapement technology since the lever escapement was developed in the eighteenth century. He died on the Isle of Man in 2011 at the age of 85. In his lifetime, he built 23 pocket watches and a small number of wristwatches entirely by hand, from raw materials, using tools he made himself. He is the only watchmaker in the modern era to have designed, built, and finished complete watches alone using the traditional methods of Breguet.

The Millennium wristwatch was created in 1999 to celebrate Omega's adoption of the co-axial escapement. Daniels and his apprentice Roger Smith produced approximately 50 pieces over three years. The 37mm yellow gold case houses an Omega ebauche modified by Daniels and Smith, containing the first Omega-produced extra-flat co-axial escapement. The movement is gold-plated, engraved, and decorated with guilloche, finished in the ornate English style that Daniels championed. The gold rotor is hand-finished. The dial is engine-turned silver with gold hands.

The co-axial escapement matters because every conventional Swiss lever escapement loses energy through sliding friction between the pallet stones and the escape wheel teeth. That friction requires lubrication, and lubrication degrades over time, which is why mechanical watches need servicing every five to ten years. The co-axial eliminates most of that sliding friction by delivering impulse through a radial rather than tangential interaction. Less friction means less lubricant degradation, which means longer service intervals and more consistent accuracy over time. Omega now uses the co-axial in nearly every movement they produce. The principle that makes every modern Omega run better was designed by one man on the Isle of Man.

Daniels watches at auction regularly exceed a million dollars. The Millennium pieces trade in the hundreds of thousands. These numbers reflect the reality that there will never be more Daniels watches. He is gone. The workshop is closed. What exists is what he made. I include the Millennium because Daniels is the reason the co-axial exists, the reason Omega's movements are what they are, and the reason Roger Smith has a career. He is the root of a tree that grows through modern watchmaking.