Meridian Watches - The New Watchmaking Garagistas

  The industry has a new watch brand - Meridian Watches " Manufacturers of English Made Watches".

Norfolk is best known as a hub for automobile engineering and as a magnet for an eclectic micro-community of technically accomplished individuals.  Now there is a  Norfolk-based watch company, Meridian Watches and in true "garagista" style their timepieces are workshop assembled, hand-finished and have meticulous attention to detail with regard to the minutiae.  That the brand should choose Salon QP as a launch pad was entirely appropriate - this is an event which continues to shine a spotlight on British watchmaking which has been undergoing a bit of a revival thanks in part, to a certain Peter Roberts, Fellow of the British Horological Institute who became the first UK student to study at WOSTEP, and who has inspired the current generation of watchmaking talent via London’s Hackney School of Watchmaking.  The excitement surrounding the launch has been slowly building, not a glitzy in-your-face build-up, but rather a slow emergence chronicled with the use of teaser-shots, sketches and images of some serious loop-attired craftsmen working their horological magic at their benches.

These are essentially Pilot's style timepieces, so expect high legibility, clean uncluttered dials and robust construction - but there are also unexpected features, these are shapely well-rounded case forms with curvesome lugs and  pert winding crowns, and on the dial there is a chubbyness - elongated markers draw the numerals in toward the centre offering the illusion of a smaller dialspace, the open-worked hands are generously broad and with the use of "barely-there" small seconds indications, the overall plainness in maintained.

Attention to detail is paramount.  The dials are handmade using sandwich construction which ensures readability as the SuperLume shines through the apertures cut into the dial, the sapphire is made to military specification, screws are hand-blued and although the caseback reveals nothing, each movement has been engraved and decorated including some hand-frosting on the bridges - a very English and for years an almost extinct finishing style.

Each piece will come supplied with two hand-stitched British-made straps and an adjustment kit with everything the wearer will need and more - tools, spare screws and strap bars ... those clever chaps at Meridian have quite simply thought of everything.  We will bring you images of the brand's portfolio when we receive them, in the meantime, more information can be found at the brand's official website.