Member Article

Time For A New Career As Vehicle Technician Launches Handcrafted Watches Made In Northumberland

A former garage owner with over 30-years experience in the vintage and modern motoring industry has turned his expertise in vehicle engineering to design and create unique handcrafted bespoke watches, and is now launching his own range at the age of 48.

Glen Anthony Jobling from Bedlington in Northumberland was inspired to change his career in 2015 as a successful garage owner in North Tyneside and become a horological entrepreneur after combining his love of automotive engineering and watches.

Glen Anthony Watches (GA) has now officially launched with a range of men’s and women’s watches designed, manufactured and assembled at his workshop in Wansbeck Business Park in Northumberland. All the parts of the watch are handmade on site by Glen except the Swiss movement, which he has sourced to meet his specific requirements.

The watches are very much influenced by Glen’s love of all things mechanical and automotive, with a design style which plays on the craftsmanship of the vintage cars he also used to restore, and the high tech materials of the latest sports cars.

Glen pays much attention to detail to the watches he creates, with carbon fibre, stainless steel and titanium, Allen bolts and tiny brackets connect the strap to the case to develop sports watches with finesse. His first range - the bespoke Synchro - is also interchangeable and can be updated for a new look with a range of different bezels. The dial and hands can also be matched to suit any colour such as a car or a sports racing team, and watch back engraved as part of the manufacturing process with precision machinery in the GA brand style.

The new vocation came as Glen began considering his options for a change in his traditional career in vehicle maintenance and MOT’s. Having been a technician since the age of 14 and following the footsteps of his Dad, who also ran a garage in Gosforth, Glen could have easily carried on until retirement. However, a desire to shake things up has now led Glen to turn a hobby into a viable business and use his engineering and technical skills, as he explains.

“With a lifelong love of watches, five years ago I was looking to buy a particular leading brand watch which I discovered did not include a proper movement - the watch’s working mechanism - that I expected it would. I went home to research the parts and bought the movement I wanted along with a dial, a case and a strap, and made my first watch. It was this process which really opened the doors to a world of precision engineering, design and production.

“I made a watch for my friend, which he loved, so I thought maybe I could start to personalise it and make my own case, and I went out and bought a lathe and a milling machine. I could then start the process of creating my own parts with the handmade cases, and I made a few more watches which sold very well.

“A friend who taught Computer Aided Design (CAD) at a local college visited and suggested I try the CAD design programme, which I did and that changed my life completely. I could then create watches in 3D and assemble them, but I wanted to turn them into real products. So I invested in CNC machinery to turn my CAD drawings into reality and began to design, manufacture and hand finish my own watch parts.”

Approaching 50, Glen thought now was the time to try and turn this into a viable business as he really wanted a new challenge. One of his garage staff had worked with him for 14 years since he was a young lad, so he talked to him about him about taking over the garage which he was really interested in. After getting some finance together, the employee bought the business over the last two years, and is now his own boss. This also provided a monthly income for Glen to invest further and learn how to make watches as a viable business, which he has spent the last two years focusing on before launching GA officially last month.

Glen continued: “I have learned so much over the past few years and now sales are really coming in, I can make the watches much faster as I have refined the process. As car repair is all computers now, for me the creative potential of watch making is unlimited, as I can design whatever I or the customer wants by making my own mechanical parts and for me, the more customisation the better.

“Launching the business is very exciting as I’m now able to show customers what we are making, with the opening of the showroom here at Wansbeck Business Park and the watch range on display for people to come and see. This is a dream come true as I pushed so hard in the development of the range, working 16 hours a day for two years to create a stylish finished product which is now selling well.” GA has also received support from Business Northumberland and enterprise agency NBSL, which has helped to finance an e-commerce website, training for Glen, a personal loan for the studio premises and marketing advice and guidance for the launch. This has also allowed Glen to source the best Swiss automatic movements for his range, which are created to his exact specifications and are fully serviceable with a 3 year guarantee. However, Glen has negotiated a steep learning curve from concept to product and has faced a number of challenges, especially in prototyping stages. He said: “Making the watch case takes four procedures and quite often I would complete three and make a mistake on the last procedure and so the part would be ruined, and that happened a lot! “Also ensuring minute details like creating the bolt holes on the cases would involve snapping tiny thread tools and so I was getting really frustrated on an evening, with lots of tools going in the bin. The dials are highly technical and so need the attention to detail to get the look I wanted. It took a year of five days a week, 12-16 hours a day where I can now make them perfectly. You have to go through that process and it has helped to refine the design.”

Customers can now view the range in a luxury showroom and when a bespoke watch is commissioned and built, Glen is able to build up the watch in front of the client so they can see each step, all the individual parts and the design features. One of Glen’s most popular features is the design of the unique strap connector which allows the strap to be flexible and contour around the wrist.

“In the showroom I can show people the layout of the carbon fibre layered dial and how it is constructed, including the space-frame titanium layer, bolted in with 12 Allen key bolts, the coloured, toothed wheel, the race-like chapter ring which is inspired from brake discs and the matching colour hands.

“I have definitely been heavily influenced by my love of sport cars, which I used to make and modify parts for. I like to think my watch looks different with lots of detail – a classic sports watch with more finesse. Being able to change the bezel and strap easily is something most manufacturers don’t do, as owners would need special tools, but mine is held in with two bolts and customers receive the tool and so can change the parts and therefore change the style of the watch.

“This is a very exciting time, as I have always been in engineering but this is now much more high tech. Changing my career before 50 was one of my big drives and I am doing something I love that has revived my passion for problem solving on a design level. For me, the end of my traditional career is now changing – it’s a brave move but worth it and proves it’s never too late.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathryn Clapham .