By John Galt
The Garrick Shaftsbury SM301 is a confident debut piece from a young British brand with its owner David Brailsford citing legends such as Arnold & Son, Graham and RW Smith as inspiration, this is one way to make an entrance on the horology stage.
The Shaftsbury SM301 is very much in the classic vein with its gentle curves and clean crisp dial. The dial indicates hours and minutes with leaf-shaped hands and finely drilled holes representing the minutes. A small seconds dial at 6 O’clock makes the dial look very simple but, that couldn’t be further from it, the dial is a 3 part dial construction with a machined brass dial with 2 separate chapter rings mounted on steel pillars with three thermos blued screws holding the rings in place adding superb depth to the dial. Dials are offered in a choice of oven fired enamel in either black or white or anodised aluminium a material that lends itself to colouration opening up a wide spectrum of personalization options which Garrick are happy to accommodate.
The handsome Shaftesbury comes in a round 42mm polished stainless steel case with lugs that extent beautifully from the outer case tailing off sharply at the tips, the crown is a gorgeous compressed onion type perfectly suiting the distinguished look.
Turning the Shaftesbury over the impressive Unitas 6498 NOS manual winding movement is visual through an exhibition case back that extends all the way to the narrow square lipped edge meaning the entire movement is visible as opposed to a large rear bezel obstructing your view. The trusty 1950’s movement has been reduced back to its base by Garrick before being gold-plated then re-assembled using Garrick’s own in-house bridges, Cotes de Genève stripes and their very own free-sprung balance.
Garrick has chosen to release the Shaftesbury on an alligator or matte strap only, but the choice is long and varied and all are secured with a tang buckle.
The price is $5,825 which is surely very attractive for a piece that’s constructed and made in-house in England, with their first release, Garrick has definitely set a marker for handsome gentleman’s watches. For more info, please visit garrick.co.uk
Stay tuned for our upcoming hands-on review!
John Galt – Contributing Editor
John Galt caught thehorology bug back in 2010 on his first visit to a London watch show and has snowballed since; John has become an avid writer and blogger of timepieces of all kinds, from everyday timepieces to modern Luxury HauteHorology, his favorite brands being HYT and GreubelForsey that push the boundaries of modern watch-making. John keeps a keen interest in the UK watch scene with their many emerging brands and timepiece’s. John Galt currently contributes watch related articles for online publications in the UK and USA. You can follow John on Twitter @johng73 Read his articles here.
