October 2026
The first Alliance Assembly
Alistair Audsley
CEO, THE ALLIANCE
In its first three years, British Watchmakers' Day has shown us something beyond its own success: how much our member brands value being in the same room. The Alliance Assembly has been created to give our trade members that room. It’s a day for trade members only, to hear first-hand how the sector is performing, to see what their trade body is doing on their behalf, and to have a voice of their own.

Our first Assembly took place on 22 September at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, home of Everton FC. We owe the venue to Christopher Ward, whose sponsorship of the club gave us the use of the stadium at no cost. The sight of the Alliance’s logo and welcome message on the stadium's main digital screen, with our members gathered beneath it for a photograph, was a shot in the arm for everyone present.

Co-founding director Mike France welcomed attendees before our Chairman, Roger W. Smith OBE, offered personal reflections on how far the British sector has travelled in the 25 years since he founded Roger W. Smith Ltd, and across his 40 years at the bench.
The sector headlines

Our founding CEO Alistair Audsley then presented the headlines from the Alliance's Bellwether II study. British watch and clockmaking has grown from £125m in 2021 to £206m in 2024 - a rise of 65% in three years. That’s fifteen times more than a UK manufacturing sector that has barely moved by comparison and is estimated at around £245m in 2026. The sector now comprises some 140 companies, two-thirds of them established since 2015 and half since 2020, employing around 1,600 people, a 3.6-fold increase. Its concentration of products between £200 and £5,000 places British brands squarely in the mid-market space the Swiss houses have vacated as they move upscale.

The headline story for 2026 has been the return and burgeoning growth of assembly by British brands, which the mainstream media including the FT and the Telegraph have both picked featured this year.
The Alliance's work

The Alliance's own numbers tell a parallel story. The consumer Club has grown to 1,813 subscribing members, from 1,250 in 2025, with around 90 UK students joining free as part of the Alliance’s commitment to providing a window for new talent into the sector. The @britishwatchmakers Instagram channel has passed 12,000 followers entirely organically. British Watchmakers' Day 2026 welcomed 1,850 guests across three sessions with a four-month campaign behind a single day and coverage across sector and mainstream media worldwide. The website, britishwatchmakers.com, has been rebuilt as a discovery portal: in the year to August it drew 54,000 visitors, 142,000 page views and 104,000 click-throughs to members' own sites, with 41% of traffic arriving via Google and nearly half from overseas.

Beyond the UK, 2026 was the first year British watchmaking was represented at CPHE, Eurotempus and the Watchmaking G7 at EPHJ, with the Alliance welcomed as a full member on behalf of the UK, a seat at the table alongside the Swiss, French, Italian and German federations on issues from US tariffs to counterfeiting and AMLA regulation. At home, the Alliance speaks for the sector on Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, on FCDO roundtables and trade missions, and is forging closer ties with the British Watch and Clockmakers' Guild, while building a stronger allied-trades proposition with the NAJ, the Goldsmiths' Company, the London Diamond Bourse and BATF as a stakeholder in the inception of the British Jewellery Council.
Expanding circles

The day's guest speakers were chosen to show that expanding network in the most direct way possible. Lee Harrison, founder of Careers Hub Ltd, introduced the Careers Hub, a joint venture and the product of two years' Alliance investment in a bespoke recruitment platform for watch and clockmaking. The Bellwether identified finding the right people as the challenge shared across the sector; broad job boards rely on hit and hope, and the Hub brings sector interest and opportunity together with industry-specific profiles, candidate match scoring and professional HR oversight. It holds a recruitment licence, is in beta testing now, and goes live in January 2027.

Ben Massey, Chief Executive of the National Association of Jewellers, set out the thinking behind the British Jewellery Council, as the new cross-sector umbrella body for jewellery, watchmaking, silverware and allied crafts. Our £245m sector gains considerably from standing alongside an industry worth more than £10bn.


From left: Richard Hall(BIST), Ben Massey(NAJ), Heather Guile(BIST), Alistair Audsley

Richard Hall and Heather Guile of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade completed the circle. Richard reaffirmed the Government's recognition of British watchmaking as a growth story and a supporting pillar of the UK's international trade proposition; Heather set out the practical export support available to members.

After a networking lunch the floor was opened, and a lively discussion followed on skills and talent and on how members can share knowledge through the year. Colin Andrews, new Chairman of the British Watch and Clockmakers' Guild and founder of member brand The Great British Watch Company, also took the floor to update attendees on the Guild's work.
Our thanks to every member who made the journey, to our speakers, and to Christopher Ward and Everton FC.

The Assembly will now be an annual fixture…

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