Harwood Self Winding Watch Company Limited (historical British company)

Who actually made the Harwood automatic

British patent GB218487A names John Harwood and Harry Cutts and records their application of 7 July 1923. Boettcher assigns movement tooling and ébauches to A. Schild and assembly to Fortis, with some production by Blancpain.

The British company’s licence covered the British Isles; Harwatch Syndicate and the 1929 Grenchen Harwood company were separately named organisations. Fortis dates the first deliveries of its Harwood automatic wristwatches to 13 July 1926.

Boettcher disputes a documented 1926 Basel launch and places substantial tooling activity later, making the launch chronology contested. Boettcher dates the British company’s voluntary winding-up resolution to 23 September 1932.

Companies House lists an active HARWOOD SELF WINDING WATCH COMPANY LTD, number 16762374, incorporated on 3 October 2025. The 2025 company record establishes a namesake, not succession from the historical British company or the American company. 3145

The work and why it matters

The label identifies a historical Harwood commercialisation business; the British company is the preferred referent, but the unsuffixed name is jurisdictionally ambiguous. The British company was formed in London on 12 November 1928, according to Boettcher’s documentary chronology.

A contemporary July 1928 New Yorker notice names Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company, Inc., in New York. The patent discloses an oscillating winding weight, spring buffers and a friction coupling against overwinding; a rotating bezel sets the hands. 123

People, production and attribution

Boettcher identifies Louis and Philip Alexander as financial backers of Harwood’s development. Harwood’s crownless automatic wristwatch is documented by Fortis as a bezel-set commercial application of the self-winding concept.

The identity matters because invention, financing, movement supply, assembly and regional licensing belonged to different participants. 143