The Schofield Watch Company was founded through the vision and dedication of founder, Giles Ellis. The

Schofield Watch Company founder Giles Ellis.

company was just recently introduced into the highly competitive world of high-end watches at the 2011 Saatchi Gallery SalonQP (an exhibition of watch companies and their wares), receiving critical acclaim which led to an extended waiting list for their models. The Schofield Watch Company’s surprising early success wouldn’t be possible without founder Giles Ellis’ vision and extreme dedication and attention to detail.

The Schofield Watch Company is an independent company, based just north of Brighton in a small village in rural Sussex, England.  Ellis founded the company in order to design a watch that he himself would like to wear. In fact, initially the company was not supposed to be a commercial venture but simply a personal enterprise to create a luxury watch to Giles’ own exacting and meticulous standards and his own unique style.  Giles himself spent countless hours meticulously detailing every facet of the business and involving himself in everything from picking parts suppliers, logos, the website, photography and almost every other possible variable involved in crafting the brand and its products. His meticulous attention to detail meant he spent an inordinate amount of time just to find suppliers that offered the quality he desired and, upon realizing that one watch would require nearly 4000 man-hours to complete he founded the Schofield Watch Company. Giles spent several years working on all of these aspects, and without his efforts there would be no Schofield.

That Giles’ first model designs, the Signalman GMT PR and the Signalman DLC GMT PR, were so well received owes to his history. Giles’ father is a skilled woodworker and his mother is a sculptor while Giles himself has embarked in endeavors as diverse as owning a business restoring antique musical instruments to designing components for high-end hi-fi equipment and mountain bikes. With his background in graphic and product design and the monolithic 18th and 19th century British lighthouses that he drew the inspiration from for his first models, it should be no surprise that the Signalmen models were so highly praised, in spite of focusing on aspects other than fashionability in the designs.

The first models released by Schofield, the Signalman GMT PR (left) and the Signalman DLC GMT PR (right).

In a quote from the company’s website Schofield says “My motivation isn’t driven by a desire to be fashionable. I am a man obsessed with detail and thoroughness. If I design something it has to be thoroughly thought through without gaps. I like to know every detail has been considered. With great design, I engage with the fact that the people who make and design things of great beauty have invested their love, care and attention into every minute facet of its creation. It is this sense of refinement and thoroughness that inspires and motivates me.”

The result of Giles’ tireless work ethic and dedication to detail was the critically-acclaimed launch of his passion project. What lies in store for the future of the Schofield Watch Company is unsure, but if early success is any indicator, it is a future that will be highly anticipated by watch enthusiasts and collectors everywhere.