September 2026 Monthly Meeting
Beresford Hutchinson Memorial Lecture
Dr. Ian Greaves
Why did the British Need to Smuggle Watch Jewels from Switzerland in WWII?
A brief history of jewel making from the late 1700s to the 1940s
The South London Branch Welcomes Dr Ian Greaves who has been collecting watches for years. Ian is the director of his business providing nuclear engineering and safety consultancy. His work is very pressured and must be accurate. This seems to be a theme – the accuracy and challenge of watchmaking. Ian collects over a wide time period, focussing on English horology before 1900, with the odd Continental item creeping in. He also restores watches in his workshop located in rural Cheshire.
Ian is a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society Northern Section and Liveryman of the WCC. I met him at Lyme Park when they celebrated their 50 years 2019. He is a member of the NAWCC the English Chapter and we bumped into one another again in Lancaster PA for their 80th celebration in 2023. A few libations taken and I have finally convinced him to come and talk to the South London Branch of the BHI on jewel making.
Ian will blend some technical and economic business developments in watchmaking with the effects of war to answer the question in the title. He will discuss the craft techniques used for making jewels in England in the 19th century, focussing on Coventry, where the materials were sourced, and then look at how spread of the knowledge to the Continent and advances in technology and increasing demand changed the industry. This background, with the progress of the war in early 1940 are the reasons that the British needed to smuggle watch jewels, tools and parts from Switzerland in WWII. He will look at the ingenious ways that the British used to smuggle materials through the Axis cordon surrounding Switzerland.
I hope you will come along and enjoy some of the food and drink as we remember Beresford Hutchinson our former chairman, curator of the British Museum and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. He gave his time to teach the West Dean Students. He was a very accomplished craftsman and is fondly remembered in the branch.