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Arnold & Son

One of the most revered names in English watchmaking lore and precision watchmaking at large, Arnold & Son is the stuff of legends.

John Arnold was born 1736 in Cornwall, the son of a watchmaker. One could say his destiny was already written. After completing an apprenticeship with his father at the age of 19, he spent a few years in the Netherlands to hone his watchmaking skills and learn German. Upon his return to England, he establishes his workshop in London in 1762 and begins gaining recognition.

Thus began the first part of John Arnold’s illustrious career. In 1764, he makes a ring containing a half-quarter repeater – the smallest ever made - which he presented to King George III. This granted him fame and fortune in England, where he would continue creating ornate pieces for the wealthy. But his real passion was in developing precision chronometry.

And so in 1770, John Arnold presented his first marine chronometer to the Board of Longitude. Impressed by the watch's quality and performance, the Board awarded John Arnold a grant of £200, the first of many grants he was to receive throughout his career. In the following years, John Arnold would experiment on different forms and materials for the balance wheel and balance spring. During this time, his marine chronometers would accompany some of the greatest explorers of the 18th and 19th century on their expeditions, including Captain Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific, Captain Phipps for his voyage towards the North Pole, and Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Northwest Passage.

Today, Arnold & Son is a brand that looks forward while simultaneously paying homage and perpetuating the work and legacy of John Arnold, undoubtedly one of the greatest watchmakers who ever lived. With a full-fledged manufacture at its disposal, Arnold & Son has been producing extraordinary and easily recognizable timepieces.

Spread across two collections, the Instrument Collection and Royal Collection, Arnold & Son reimagines watch complications and constructions in unprecedented ways. There are a number of traits that bring all Arnold & Son timepieces together, existing in varying extents between one model and other.

For one, there is symmetry. From the TB88 and Constant Force Tourbillon to the Nebula, these watches boast an almost perfectly symmetrical construction of the movement, with bridges, barrels and other components pleased in a visually harmonious manner. The same applies to its award-winning Time Pyramid, a skeleton watch inspired by ornate antique British skeleton clocks that were popular in the 19th century.

Another common Arnold & Son attribute is oversized complications. With the HM Perpetual Moon and HM Double Hemisphere Perpetual Moon for example, Arnold & Son has taken the traditional moonphase complication and produced one of the largest moon displays ever seen on a wristwatch. Not only visually enchanting, the moon phase is accurate to one day’s deviation in over a century. The same can be said of its more recent globetrotter, a world-time watch that houses one of the largest, three-dimensional hemispherical world-time indications on any watch.

And last but certainly not least, Arnold & Son has used the True Beat or dead-beat seconds in more ways than any other brand, and not just in highly complicated watches. From the DSTB with its dial-side seconds mechanism, in steel or rose gold, to the Golden Wheel, the first timepiece to incorporate a True Beat seconds hand with a wandering hours display, Arnold & Son has paid tribute to its history of high-precision chronometers in unexpected ways.