When Did Smiths Stop Producing Watches? The End of English Watchmaking

Smiths holds a proud and singular place in horological history as Britain's great twentieth-century watchmaker - the one company that genuinely manufactured watches in England, movements and all. But that golden era did not last forever, and today many people wonder - when did Smiths stop producing watches, and why? The answer is a story of gradual decline rather than a sudden ending, and it reflects the wider forces that reshaped the entire watch industry. Here is what happened.

The Short Answer

Genuine English watch production at Smiths came to an end around 1970. This was not a sudden closure but the culmination of a gradual decline through the 1960s, as the company found it increasingly difficult to compete - a decline that was then hastened by the arrival of the quartz revolution in the early 1970s.

After genuine English watchmaking ended, the Smiths name continued to appear on watches for some time, but these later pieces were no longer the genuinely English-made articles of the golden era. To understand how it came to this, we need to look at the whole arc of the story.

The Golden Era

First, it is worth remembering just how remarkable Smiths' achievement was. From the late 1940s, Smiths did something almost no other British company managed - it established genuine watch manufacturing in England, producing complete watches, movements and all, on British soil, as we explore in our guide to whether Smiths watches were really made in England.

Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, this English watchmaking flourished. Smiths produced handsome, quality watches, crowned by the celebrated De Luxe range, and famously accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary to the summit of Everest in 1953. For a genuine golden period, Smiths carried the flag for British watchmaking with real pride and success.

The Gradual Pressures

Yet even during this golden era, powerful pressures were building. The greatest of these was competition - above all from Switzerland, whose highly efficient, large-scale watchmaking industry could produce watches in enormous numbers and at prices that were increasingly difficult for Smiths to match.

Manufacturing watches in England, to a genuine standard, was an expensive and demanding business. As the 1960s wore on, Smiths found it ever harder to compete on price with the flood of Swiss watches, and later with cheaper watches from further afield. The economics of English watchmaking became increasingly challenging, and the pressure on Smiths' watch business steadily grew. This was the gradual phasing out - not a single decision, but a slow erosion of the viability of English watch production.

The Wind-Down Around 1970

By around 1970, these pressures had become insurmountable, and Smiths wound down its genuine English watch production. The remarkable era of English-made Smiths watches - which had lasted a little over two decades - came to a close. It was a genuinely significant moment, marking the effective end of large-scale English watchmaking.

The decision reflected hard commercial reality rather than any failure of the watches themselves, which remained handsome and well made to the end. Smiths simply could no longer compete in a market dominated by cheaper overseas production.

The Quartz Revolution

If competition had gradually undermined English watchmaking through the 1960s, the arrival of quartz technology in the early 1970s transformed the entire industry almost overnight. The quartz revolution, as we explore in our guide to the history of quartz watches, made traditional mechanical watchmaking suddenly seem old-fashioned, and it swept away many established makers.

For an English watch industry already struggling to compete, quartz was the final blow. The timing was decisive - just as Smiths was winding down its English mechanical watch production, the ground was shifting entirely beneath the whole traditional industry. There was to be no revival of English Smiths watchmaking.

What Happened to the Smiths Name?

Here is an important point for collectors. Although genuine English watch production ended around 1970, the Smiths name did not disappear entirely. For a period afterwards, watches continued to be sold bearing the Smiths name - but these later pieces were generally not made in England, very often using imported movements, and they lacked the genuine English manufacture that made the golden-era watches so special.

This is why, as we discuss in our complete guide to vintage English watches, it is the watches of the golden period - roughly the late 1940s to around 1970, carrying the proud Made in England marking - that represent the genuine article. The later name alone does not carry the same genuine English heritage.

A Genuine Golden-Era Smiths From Our Collection

The SMITHS De Luxe - Boxed Vintage 1960's Men's Manual Gold Dress Watch is a wonderful example of a genuine golden-era Smiths, presented boxed - an elegant gold Smiths De Luxe from the very period when Britain proudly made its own watches, and from the celebrated line that made history on Everest. It is a genuine piece of English watchmaking heritage, from before the great decline.

Check out our full vintage watch collection today!

A Final Thought

So, when did Smiths stop producing watches? Genuine English watch production came to an end around 1970, after a gradual decline through the 1960s driven by fierce overseas competition, and hastened by the quartz revolution that followed. It was the close of a remarkable chapter - the era when Britain genuinely made its own watches. That very rarity and heritage is what makes a genuine golden-era Smiths so cherished today. Few watches carry a story as proud, or represent a moment in national history quite so genuinely, as an English-made Smiths from the years before the decline.

At AR Collectables, we have a genuine love for vintage Smiths and the proud British heritage they carry, and every piece in our collection is handpicked, cleaned, and tested. If you would like to know more, or are looking to buy a genuine vintage Smiths watch, just drop us a message - we would love to help. 🤝

Check out our full vintage watch collection today!