English watches with Guillaume balances are very rare. Dent and Frodsham used few, starting in 1916, Northern Goldsmiths? Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne made few in 1918, Dreyfuss Moise of London two in 1929. Samuel Smith and Stauffer Co. seem to be the two English companies that had most faith in the Guillaume balance. This watch comes from a small series which Smith destined for the Kew Observatory trials. His No. 191-222 won 3rd place in 1898, his No. 192-256 won 11th place in 1915. Smith's No. 192-233, clas-sified as a deck watch, took part in the 1918 trial. The movement of the present watch would have been supplied by Bonniksen and then fitted with a Guillaume balance and adjusted by Smith for entry into the Observatory trials. Bonniksen patent Karrusels enjoyed particular success in the Kew Observatory trials. In the Smith & Son catalogues of the time, English revolving escapement watches of this type with special Kew certificates sold for 55 pounds. At the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century - a period of general decline for British horology - a few British watch-makers created magnificent, ultra-complicated watches and chronometers, as if to prove to the world that they were still the best. Some of these watches were made in collaboration with the best Swiss watch companies. Three of these British watchmakers were from London: Charles Frodsham, Edward John Dent, and Samuel Smith. S. Smith & Son. The leading London firm for high quality and complicated watches at the end of the 19th Century and during the opening decades of the 20th, was founded by Samuel Smith, jeweler and watchmaker, c. 1851. Watches were made for him by Nicole Nielsen. Alongside the wide range of civilian watches and clocks, Smith's also made chronometers which performed well and made the firm a supplier to the Admiralty. Under the guidance of Herbert S.A. Smith, the firm developed into a large manufacturing company with its own research laboratories, the family succession being continued a further generation by Sir Alan Herbert Smith, with the company going on to make automobile and aircraft instruments alongside clocks and watches. Kew Observatory trials for watches Various testing laboratories around the world were responsible for grading and testing watches. The most stringent being the Kew (Teddington) Observatory, just west of London. A standard Swiss chronometer test would last 15 days, however, the Kew test lasted 44 days. The tests consisted of observing the time keeping of the watch in various positions and at various temperatures and awarding points for accuracy in these differing states. 82.3 marks is not a record-breaking figure but is regarded as especially good (scores of over 90 were regularly obtained by 1900) and still does the makers great credit. The eight testing positions were as follows: Pendant up - 67 degrees Dial up - 42 degrees Pendant right - 67 degrees Dial up - 67 degrees Pendant left - 67 degrees Dial up - 92 degrees Pendant up - 67 degrees Dial down - 67 degrees The Guillaume Balance. Anibal acier au nickel pour balanciers, an alloy invented by Dr. Charles Edouard Guillaume, exhibits unusual properties, both in terms of thermal expansion and in changes in elasticity. Around 1900 Guillaume attempted to eliminate the so-called Middle Temperature Error caused by the fact that the change of rate in a timekeeper with a steel-brass bimetallic balance is approximately a linear func-tion of temperature, while the change of rate caused by change in elasticity of a balance spring is approximately a quadratic function. Thus, it equals zero at only two temperatures, causing secondary error. In 1899, Guillaume noted that steel with an addition of 44.4% nickel had a negative square coefficient of thermal expansion. Anibal, combined with brass in bimetallic laminae, makes expansion close to quadratic. Balances with bimetallic rims made of anibal and brass are usually called Guillaume balances. When combined with special balance springs as in the present watch, they exhibit remarkable temperature stability, on occasion not exceeding 1/50 second per day at 1oC. Hugh Vivian Born in Portugal in 1884, his father was William Vivian, a mining engineer in Portugal. Hugh went to school in England but later stud-ied engineering and metallurgy in Germany. In 1909 he was made technical director of the Vivian & Sons copper smelting business in Swansea. In 1922 he became managing director. Hugh Vivian was also a member of the governing body of the University of Wales and the National Museum of Wales. His long involvement with the metals industry explains his special request for and purchase of an anti-magnetic watch.