Smiths Astral CM4501 Skin Diver
This Smith Astral CM4501 Skin Diver dates from 1966. It has a frosted, gilt finished, 60467E 17-jewel movement, made in house at Smith’s Cheltenham workshop, with a double-roller lever escapement, a steel escape and a monometallic balance with beryllium balance-spring. It is housed in a large stainless steel case marked 20 Atmos, but the use of a non-screw down crown makes the claim of 200m water resistance somewhat questionable.
A number of versions of this watch were produced, one with Smiths Astral on the dial and the later, post-1968, version which was labelled Astral with the Crown logo above; some versions were sold with a countdown bezel, others with a regular elapsed time bezel; the final variation was the movement, with some versions having the hacking 60455e or 60474E movements, whilst others, mine included, the non-hacking 60467E. Whist it is very difficult to find definitive facts about these watches, the reasons for some of these discrepancies becomes a little clearer when you look at the position of the Smiths Industries in the late 1960s. |
To understand Smiths in the 60s, it is first necessary to understand their beginnings. The history of Smiths as a watchmaker is closely tied to the history of 20th Century Britain. Samuel Smith Senior established the company as a S.Smith and Son, a watch and clock retailer in 1851. In 1873, his son, Samuel Smith Junior opened larger premises on London's famous Strand, later opening shops on Piccadilly and in Trafalgar Square. They sold a wide variety of English and Swiss made pocket watches, although retailed only Swiss made wristwatches at this time. In 1934 Smiths had acquired H Williamson Ltd, based in Coventry and began to manufacture their own clocks, but making watches and time-based instruments was a far more difficult undertaking.
Much has been written about the similarity of the Smiths movements with those of Jaeger-LeCoultre and indeed in 1927 Smiths had purchased 75% of Ed. Jaeger (London) Ltd. a company set up six years earlier by LeCoultre of Switzerland and Jaeger of France to produce ‘automotive dashboard instruments’ informing the drivers of prestige cars made by English companies such as Humber, MG and Aston Martin. In fact the automotive instrument business went so well for Jaeger that Smiths' major competition, Lucas, showed interest in purchasing them. Smiths got wind of Lucas's intent, so they made a pre-emptive offer too good to refuse This not only gave Smiths very strong market position, it also gave them the services of Jaeger London’s chief technician, a Le Locle trained watchmaker named Robert Lenoir who had been sent to London by Jaeger in 1920. After discussions with Jaeger in 1928 the All British Escapement Company Ltd (ABEC) was set up to produce escapements at a newly built wing of the Chronos Works factory in Cricklewood with machinery from Carl Haas supplied by Jaeger and overseen by Lenoir.
Lenoir went on to become responsible for the development of Smiths in house watch movements and although there is no proof that the movements were based on a JLC calibre, some design elements appear to be heavily influenced by JLC designs, they have a straight click spring, early movements have a striped finish and the balance cock is secured with 2 screws.
Lenoir went on to become responsible for the development of Smiths in house watch movements and although there is no proof that the movements were based on a JLC calibre, some design elements appear to be heavily influenced by JLC designs, they have a straight click spring, early movements have a striped finish and the balance cock is secured with 2 screws.
In 1939, with the Second World War fast approaching, it was decided to move Smith's instrument manufacturing to a new greenfield site in Bishop's Cleeve near Cheltenham. The first workers sent up from Cricklewood set up shop in The Grange, an old manor house, making hairsprings, many living in caravans on the site as local rental properties were in short supply. A new, purpose-built factory was built on the fields to the south of the Grange and an estate of 41 semi-detached houses was built to house the workers. Other workers were housed Bishops Park. Built in 1942 with advice from the Billy Butlin, who had opened his first holiday camp in 1936, consisted of identical prefabricated bungalows and had a shop, canteen and a dance hall-cum-cinema. Married employees were accommodated inside the loop roadways and single employees on the outside. The estate was demolished by the 1960s and is currently the site of a business park.
A large part of the proposed factory was to be for the work necessary to produce watches for the war that was looking increasingly likely and special machinery was ordered from Switzerland. Much of the new equipment was never delivered and Smiths found themselves forced to design and manufacture many of their own machines. By the end of 1939, Smiths were making 8,000 jewelled lever escapements a week. Within three years, they were able to supply the military with a pocket watch and, even more impressively, they designed a chronograph (a pocket watch with a stop/start/return to zero function) that was put into production in just 12 months.
Lenoir was instrumental in the improvement in the design and finish of their Smiths movements and oversaw the development of 12.15 movement and the production of a high-grade all-English wristwatch in 1946. The 12.15 movement was further refined to become the 27CS in 1954, the CS signifying centre seconds, a requirement of the latest Air Ministry contract. The 27CS was further developed with a hacking function to meet Defence Specification DEF-3-B (September 1966) Wrist Watch, General Service which was published to provide a wristwatch for all three branches of the British Military and also labelled with the NATO designation W10. Smiths won the contract to supply the British Armed Forces with the W10 and deliveries began in 1967.
The 60467E movement found in my Smiths Astral Skin Diver is a further development of that found in the W10, with the addition of a calendar movement. First introduced in 1966 as is evidenced by the Smiths TopTime advertising campaign. There is some speculation that the watch was produced with the hope of the winning the upcoming Royal Navy Divers watch contract (possibly replacing the Rolex MilSubs) and the watch does indeed resemble the illustrations in DEF Stan 66-4 (Part 1) Issue 1. However this is pure conjecture and I cannot find any evidence that this is the case.
In many ways, however, the CM4501 does point to the final death throes of Smiths as the powerhouse of 20th Century English watchmaking, it is pretty much a ‘contract watch’ with a case and a branded dial bought in from overseas, a Smiths movement fitted. By the mid 60s smiths were struggling financially and to meet the growing trend for divers’ watches as everyday wear, Smiths bought in a suitable case. Whilst the similarities in case design with the Seiko 62MAS case have been noted (it has even been suggested that these were surplus 62MAS cases sold to European companies when Seiko introduced an improved version of the case with a sturdier crown tube in 1965, whilst others suggest that the 62MAS case was based on a European design!), these cases were of French manufacture and identical cases produced by T.K. Co (Theodore Kagen Corp) are found in many similar skin divers from other brands including Stowa and a plethora of smaller names, some of them ‘one watch wonders’ as far as I can tell. One of the oddities about this watch is that it has a very deep caseback for a manual wind movement, in fact the majority of the other watches using this case contained automatic movements. Unsubstantiated stories are in wide circulation that Smiths had recently lost the right to produce their automatic movement following a court case for copyright infringement with IWC, and so a manual movement was used in these watches, the more likely explanation, however, is that Smiths had one eye on the navy contract, which specified a hand winding movement, and had the means to produce these 27CS-based movements in quantity. The CM4501 was appears in the 1968 Smiths’ catalogue alongside the civilian version of the W10 General Service watch, the GS4701.
The MOD contract for the W10 was not enough to keep Smiths’ watchmaking business financially secure, and the civilian market was tough, and with the introduction of quartz watches, in September 1970 it was announced that the Cheltenham factory would close and fine watchmaking ended in May 1971. The W10 contract passed to Hamilton who had also been supplying General Service watches, and Smiths continued to produce lesser watches under a number of brands, including Astral, some powered by inferior Welsh-made, or imported Swiss or Japanese movements of varying standards, until watchmaking ceased for good in 1978. The few Smiths branded watches that were sold by their distributer TNG from 1978-1983 were, without exception, rebranded imports.
This leaves the Smiths Astral Skin Diver as something of an oddity, it has been called the English Rolex by some, but the case and dial were produced in France. Undoubtedly it was an attempt by Smiths to meet the new fashion for divers watches, and possibly to win the Royal Navy contract, and was not only their first divers watch, but one of the last designs they produced with a Cheltenham made movement. It has been called a ‘Marmite’ (or ‘Vegemite’) watch in that it provokes either a love or hate response from many Smiths collectors. I’m in the former camp, I find it a great example of 1960s Skin Diver fashion, English made (or assembled?) and a piece of watchmaking history.
This leaves the Smiths Astral Skin Diver as something of an oddity, it has been called the English Rolex by some, but the case and dial were produced in France. Undoubtedly it was an attempt by Smiths to meet the new fashion for divers watches, and possibly to win the Royal Navy contract, and was not only their first divers watch, but one of the last designs they produced with a Cheltenham made movement. It has been called a ‘Marmite’ (or ‘Vegemite’) watch in that it provokes either a love or hate response from many Smiths collectors. I’m in the former camp, I find it a great example of 1960s Skin Diver fashion, English made (or assembled?) and a piece of watchmaking history.
My example dates from November 1966 and, as stated above has a non-hacking 60467E movement. It has a countdown bezel and lives on a grey 20mm Timefactors NATO. A previous owner (the original?) has had the casebook engraved with his name and town, making this watch a Geordie! The crown is no longer original, having been replaced by a watchmaker whilst repairing the date mechanism... I never went back there!