WRITTEN IN THE STARS

A close look at legendary watchmaker George Daniels's Space Traveller watches, which combined different concepts of time reading

- Chitra Lohani Saharan

In July 2019, a pocket watch made headlines when it was sold for US $4.6 million at Sotheby’s London, setting a world record for the most expensive English watch ever sold at \an auction. It was the George Daniels Space Traveller I, made by one of the greatest modern watchmakers. Before the 2019 Sotheby’s London auction, the Space Traveller had made an appearance at the same auction house in 2012 and 2017, selling for a top price of US $4.3 million, though this was the Space Traveller II. Daniels had made two versions of the Space Traveller watch and the second version was the one he wore all through his life until his death on October 21, 2011.

The story began in 1979, when Daniels started working on the first Space Traveller, which he completed it in 1982. On a trip to Zurich, Daniels sold this watch, but regretted it thereafter. To make up for it, he decided to make the Space Traveller II, an upgraded version. After changing hands, the Space Traveller I was first auctioned in Sotheby’s in Geneva in 1988, and since then it was never seen in public until the 2019 auction.

Considered one of the greatest horologists of the 20th century, Dr George Daniels is known for masterpieces featuring some of the most innovative complications. With the Space Traveller, Daniels combined solar time and sidereal time in one timepiece, using a highly accurate independent double-wheel escapement, called the co-axial escapement.

It was the first time this innovative complication had been created. The co-axial escapement, also called the Daniels Co-axial, offered enhanced precision to mechanical timepieces without the need for lubricants, to compete with the quartz watches that threatened the existence of mechanical watches between the 1970s and the 1980s. This mechanism was adopted by Omega in 1999 and is still used in their watches today. In his lifetime, Daniels created about 27 unique pieces, not including prototypes.