François-Paule Journe organiza jantar de homenagem a George Daniels

É considerado pela generalidade do sector como o maior relojoeiro vivo. O inglês George Daniels é um mestre independente, que tem produzido muito poucos relógios, introduzindo neles as melhorias técnicas que entretanto vai inventando.

Se não por outras razões, ficará na história da relojoaria por ter concebido o escape co-axial, a única alteração verdadeiramente radical no conceito global de um calibre - vendeu a patente à Omega, que ao longo dos últimos anos tem substituído os calibres normais por calibres com escape co-axial na maior parte das suas linhas - com ganhos em isocronismo e manutenção.

Agora, outros grande mestre relojoeiro, considerado por muitos como o maior da sua geração, o marselhês François Paul Journe, organizou um jantar de homenagem a George Daniels, em Londres.

Segundo Journe, "sem George Daniels, certamente que nunca me teria atrevido a fazer o meu primeiro relógio: George é, sem dúvida, o mais importante relojoeiro do século XX".

François-Paul Journe ofereceu a George Daniels um relógio de sua autoria, um Chronomètre Souverain, especialmente feito para ele e com a frase "FP to George Daniels my Mentor 2010" na ponte principal do movimento.

As declarações de Journe:

“Without George Daniels, I would most certainly never have stared to make my first watch: George is definitely the foremost watchmakers of this 20th Century. It was in 1969, when the mechanical watch industry was dethroned by the arrival of quartz, that you started making your first watch. You were the pioneer; the first watchmaker who showed us the path to horology of Art, a non-utilitarian horology. The rest proved you were right, Swiss horology was back from the ashes in constructing watches of Art and ceremonial timepieces; the landscape repopulated in two decades.

You have opened the main door of contemporary horology and showed us the path back to authentic watchmaking with innovation sense, in the respect of the grand horological tradition of our great watch masters. He opened the main door; I could only follow in opening others. But the most difficult to open was definitely the first one.
George I am proud to be your friend and I wish to thank you immensely for all the incentive and inspiration you brought me, and I could only hope there would be more watchmakers like us making real horology.”

Estiveram presentes no jantar de homenagem:

Dr George Daniels, Master Watchmaker - Roger Smith, Master Watchmaker, former pupil of George Daniels - Jonathan Betts, Senior Watch specialist at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich - Tina Millar, Former Head of the Watch Division at Sotheby’s - John and William Asprey, William & Son - Sebastian Whitestone and Andrew Crisford, Bobinet – a few privileged watch collectors such as Stephen Luk, Anthony Kingsley, David Sitwell or David Newman, the editor of QP Magazine James Gurney and of course, François-Paul Journe.