Independent in Time

My desire is to help spread the word about these amazing artisans, and hopefully find and help you acquire the timepiece or timepieces that is/are the most compelling.

Welcome and thank you for joining me in my commitment to these Independent Watchmakers and their amazing micro-mechanical art form. This website is dedicated to these artisanal masters in the horological field, whose dedication and artistry for the world of time keeping and measurement, is slowly becoming recognized.

This horological journey for me started when I was quite young, growing up near Liverpool, England, I was fascinated in mechanical things. As a little boy building things in Lego and Mechano; so my first watch, a mechanical Timex at age 10 was a treat. I still remember the luminous glow that the tritium gave off under the bed covers. Vivid recall of school mates of mine being given the first generation digital watches, bright red LED displays that one had to push a button to reveal the time, boy was I jealous! This was the cutting edge technology in 1975-76 ish.

I wore this Timex for many years until my late teens, when I was given first a plastic grey Swatch and then a quartz analogue Pulsar for my 18th birthday. A year later I entered the jewelry business, at the deep end; Boodles in Chester, England. Here I was exposed to Rolex, Omega & Zenith. The flame was lit. I can remember admiring a steel Rolex with a silver dial, no date and a name in red "Milgauss". The fascination came from its amazing anti-magnetic properties, which I thought was neat. Little did I know this was to become a highly desired watch for vintage Rolex collectors many years later.

Getting to handle mechanical watches on an almost daily basis, continued my path, I was hooked. A couple of years later, after I completed my Graduate Gemmologist course at the GIA in Santa Monica, California in 1988, I went to work in Boston for a prominent estate jeweler, Roy K. Eyges, Inc. where I had a bit of a dry spell from mechanical watches. We bought and sold vintage watches only occasionally, although one piece sticks in my mind, as it was what probably helped lead me back to Northern California in 1991. This took place in 1990, Roy bought in an estate, a lovely C.1935 rectangular stepped case 18k rose gold Patek Philippe, I was able to sell it to a dealer friend of mine for considerably more money than Roy thought it was "worth" and for way more than the "local dealers" were offering. Steve, stepped up to the plate and gave us $5000, which in those days was a lot of money for a time only "old Patek". I knew it was a valuable watch, so began my appreciation and study of fine mechanical watches. A year later I moved to San Francisco, to join Steve in the little business he was working at. Buying & selling watches on an almost daily basis became my life...

Here we are over 30 years later, it has been a blast, and at this point I have much respect for those watchmakers who have stepped out from the big business watchmaking world, to venture on their own, creating what they want. I find their work compelling. I still admire many of the products coming out of the big names in Switzerland & Germany, but my true interest lies with the small artisanal Independent Watchmaker.

I look forward to discussing any of the watchmakers or their watches. The enormous joy that comes from being part of these watchmaker's journey, is quite something, and those that have, will happily attest to that joy!

Please contact me for any acquisitions at: tim@independentintime.com or call me:

+1 650 814 4545

Cheers,

Tim Jackson G.G.