There has been a real renaissance in British watchmaking over the past decade with many British brands reaching wider audiences than ever before. Studio Underd0g and Christopher Ward are having great success in the region of popular, accessible watchmaking. When it comes to haute horology and luxury, bespoke timepieces though, you need to be looking at Garrick, who have just launched the latest generation of their Regulator watch from 2018, the new Garrick Regulator MK2.
At the outset, it’s important to note that Garrick work on a made to order basis. What this means is that they produce less than 80 watches per year but each and every one is developed and built in-house to the customers’ specifications. In short, Garrick watches are almost entirely customisable, and the customer can choose from a huge range of finishes, dials and colours, making the watches pictured here the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the Garrick Regulator MK2 can actually look like.
Naturally, some of the core aspects of the watch are set in stone, such as the 42mm stainless steel case. The case itself has a smooth, round shape that flows naturally into relatively long lugs. At 3 o’clock there’s an oversize crown with pronounced grip in what’s known as an onion crown style, a nod to Garrick’s love of British nautical heritage. Completing the design of the case is the sapphire crystal with AR coating that protects the dial.
Then we get to the dial, which, as the name of the watch suggests, has a regulator display with hours, minutes and seconds each having separate indicators. The hours are on a subdial at 3 o’clock, the minutes are central, and the seconds are off set at 10 o’clock. Regulator watches were designed to replace the concept of a master clock, that being a very accurate clock that all other timepieces in a house or workshop would be regulated from.
It reminds me of a puzzle about a man who was trying to set the time on the clocks in each room of his house, moving from room to room. He set them all to 2 o’clock but when he put all the clocks in the same room afterwards, they each showed a different time. How could he set each of the clocks in their respective rooms but make sure they all tell the exact same time? The solution was for him to buy a wristwatch that he could carry with him to each room and check the clocks in relation to that instead. The Garrick Regulator MK2 would’ve saved him a lot of trouble.
However, there’s more to this dial than the regulator time indicators because at 6 o’clock is an open-heart aperture that reveals the Garrick Trinity balance. It’s the beating heart of the watch, adding an impressive visual element to the piece. It’s also part of the wider UT-G02 automatic movement with 45-hour power reserve and accuracy of +/- 5 seconds per day.
So, the case, the display and the movement are the core features of the Garrick Regulator MK2 but beyond that almost everything is customisable. Perhaps the most obvious aspect of this is the dial, which can be virtually any colour from black to green to crimson. There’s also a variety of finishes available such as guilloché waves or frosted. Similarly, the hands can be polished, grained or heat-blued. In fact, even the finishing on the movement can be customised with gold, silver, rhodium or black frosted designs. In short, the Regulator MK2 is a complete chameleon with any number of these bespoke elements totally changing the character of the watch. And with so few being produced, chances are high that yours will be unique.
All that leaves is the price, which can differ depending on your custom choices with the frosted dial variant at £11,994 and the guilloché engine turned dial at £13,194. Considering the amount of high quality, in house finishing and bespoke elements, that’s a pretty reasonable price. If I were to order one, I think it would be the green guilloché with polished finishes for a vibrant aesthetic – got to lean into that British brightness.
Price & Specs:
Model: Garrick Regulator MK2
Case/dial: 42mm diameter x 10mm thickness, stainless steel case, frosted and engine-turned finished available in a choice of colours
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Garrick calibre UT-G02, manual winding, 19 jewels
Frequency: 18,000 vph (2.5 hz)
Power reserve: 45h
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds
Strap: Handmade alligator leather with stainless steel buckle
Price/availability: £11,994 (frosted dial) and £13,194 (engine turned dial), limited production of 10 pieces per year
More details at Garrick.
Oracle Time
