Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Davies, Alun C.

Titel

The Great War and After

Ist Teil von

• The Rise and Decline of England's Watchmaking Industry, 1550-1930, 2022, p.317-331

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Great War's impact on England's watchmaking industry was immediate and sharp. The trade press was jingoistic. The 1915 war budget imposed a protective tariff, welcomed by the industry, although it could not instantly provide substitutes for imports. Neither England nor Germany had large watch exports by this time. Switzerland benefited most because it supplied both protagonists. Yet during the war, English watchmaking firms enjoyed an Indian summer. In Coventry, the multi-national Williamson firm profited from war contracts; Rotherham made no watches but instead made war materiel, to its long-term cost as a watchmaker. The Royal Navy expanded during the war; it created an unprecedentedly large demand for chronometers. 'Parsonage' instruments were conscripted, and Mercer's firm was put in charge of increasing production. Demand for wristwatches boomed among soldiers and spread to civilians. Luminous dials became popular. Many employees of watchmaking firms enlisted; some women and German prisoners briefly replaced them. Optimistic post-war plans included training for disabled ex-servicemen. The Armistice delivered a deathblow to chronometer manufacturing. English watchmaking firms diversified and made other products. Clerkenwell's traditional watchmaking was no longer viable. It never recovered.