Arnold & Son Watches

About Arnold & Son

The Swiss watch group The British Masters has resuscitated one of the greatest names in horology with Arnold & Son. The Englishman John Arnold was a contemporary of Abraham-Louis Breguet, the two sharing time that is documented by a lively correspondence. They were also united by a tourbillon that Breguet would present to the late master watchmaker’s son: Breguet had mounted his first functioning tourbillon onto a chronometer made by John Arnold and had the following phrase engraved onto its movement: This combines the first Breguet tourbillon escapement with one of Arnold’s earliest movements. It is presented to Arnold’s son by Breguet as a tribute to the memory of his beloved father in the year 1808.

Arnold had a special place among the British watchmakers of his time, for he produced his chronometers on an almost industrial basis, developing standards and hiring numerous other watchmakers. During his lifetime, he is said to have manufactured something like 5,000 marine chronometers, selling them at reasonable prices to the British Royal Navy and the West Indies merchant fleet. Arnold chronometers were included in the traveling trunks of great discoverers such as Sir John Franklin, Captain Phipps, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain Cook, George Vancouver, Captain W.R. Broughton, Matthew Flinders, George Holbrook, and Dr. Livingstone.

The manufacture was known as Arnold & Son from 1787, after John Arnold brought his son John Roger into the company. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the historical brand remained in the possession of two generations of the great name, after which it was carried on by two further generations of non-related master watchmakers.

The ornate logo Arnold & Son was once synonymous with precise timekeeping on the high seas. Thus, the new watch brand Arnold & Son has placed the interplay of time and geography, as well as the basic functions of navigation, at the center of its model policies.

The collection’s development is built upon an autonomous manually wound movement (Caliber 294) with seven days of power reserve, exclusively designed and produced for Arnold & Son by the manufacture La Joux-Perret in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the brand’s joint venture partner. Meanwhile there are other, different reserved watch calibers ready to join it.