6. 1990-1996 Somlo Antiques

The Piccadilly Arcade

The first workshop we built was on the top floor, in what had been George Somlo’s office. We designed it to accommodate two watchmakers but in such a way that we could squeeze in a third if we needed to. Compared to the standards of today the workshop was primitive. 

Despite this, we did everything apart from the highly specialised jobs such as dial restoration. The workload grew rapidly: within a year we had to hire someone to help out, and Stephen Hale from Macclesfield joined the team.

We were in our early twenties with the confidence of youth, believing we could restore anything that came to us.

One of our most important restorations came out of the blue.  We received a call from someone in the States who identified themselves as working at J.P. Morgan and quizzed me about our work and experience. At the conclusion of the call, they said we would receive a visitor to the store who would explain the details to me. It was very “cloak and dagger”. 

A few days later someone did indeed come to the store, who had more than a passing resemblance to one of the Men in Black.

The story of the J P Morgan Frodsham pocket watches is the stuff of horological legend. Made, at considerable expense, for the partners of the original J.P. Morgan firm.  The term pocket watch is something of a misnomer here; the case was bigger than the palm of my hand and the weight was substantial. It wasn’t a watch to be put in your pocket, it was a statement.

With a case by Frederick Tomas and a movement by Nicole Nielson, it was signed by Royal watchmaker Charles Frodsham. The movement was a work of art, a minute repeater, split-second chronograph and Tourbillon.

The owner of the watch at that time was Nancy Burkett, the 90-year-old daughter of one of those original J.P. Morgan directors. For many years the watch had been stored in a vault; as a consequence of severe flooding in California in the late 1980s, water had entered the vault and several key parts of the watch had become rusty. The interrogation from the men in black was all to validate and our trustworthiness to restore this timepiece, which we did.

The watches we were working on at Somlo’s ranged from the very earliest pocket watches all the way up to wristwatches of the 1950s.

The whole experience at Somlo’s formed the basis of everything that followed in my own work and naming my first case the “Piccadilly”.