My first Impression on an Irish Watchmaker - John McGonigle

[KokChoon]

John McGonigle, photo taken during Tempus 2007 in Singapore, in front of his display cabinet

My first Impression
When The Hour Glass handed over the names of the participating list of Independent Watchmakers, there was in this list a name that I am not very familiar with and have only seen once in Basel briefly this year - McGonigle!

I remembered vaguely that "Brand" McGonigle refers to two Irish brothers and their only product is the Tourbillon Watch.... nothing much I can recall....

Thus, it was a great opportunity when I met John McGonigle for the first time on the night before the Tempus, at Richard Mille Boutique here in Singapore. To my "surprise", he is very down-to-earth and a very friendly guy indeed, and I were already looking forward to hear more about him, his brother Stephen and their watches....

First day in Tempus 2007, September 5th 2007, we meet again at the opening of the Tempus. I finally got a closer look at his watch and through his explanation, I understand more about his and his brother's work and thoroughly admire their works after that....

John was born in an Irish family where his father is a compositor by trade but a handy man as well who could turn his hand on anything, including repairing clocks and watches. John's other brother Anthony is also a watchmaker based in Rome, Italy. His sister Frances is an established artist and her influence and design were instrumental in forging the vision for McGonigles' watch. John studied watchmaking in the Irish/Swiss Institute of Horology in Dublin. Upon graduation, he spent 2 years in UK and Ireland repairing watches and clocks before proceeding to Neuchatel, Switzerland, to study at the famous international watchmaking school, Wostep. He then went to Bermuda to work as a service manager and watchmaker before returning to Switzerland again and stayed 5 good years in Audemars Piguet in LeBrassus.

This proves to be the turning point of his career as he has gained precious experience and skills in the traditional 'haut de gamme' watchmaking. He specialised in extra flat watches, perpetual calendars, minute repeaters and AP's famed titanium caged automatic Tourbillon which remains the smallest production Tourbillon ever made, besides having the opportunity to restore many AP's antique and complicated watches as well.

However, when the opportunity came in 1997 and he immediately jumped to it to develop prototypes for Christophe Claret. In Christophe's Atelier, he went on to develop Grande Complications, Tourbillons, Automates and Repeaters with Westminster Chiming.

After spending 2 full years working full time in the Atelier, he decided to return to Ireland in 1999 to establish his own watchmaking workshop producing complications for some of the Swiss watch houses. Today, he and his brother spent around 40% of their time a year in their own "McGonigle" tourbillon watches and spent the remaining 60% of their time working on projects for others.

John is truly a remarkable gentleman who would pursue his dream despite having to give out the benefits of working in big houses and in Switzerland. His personable character has charmed many during the Tempus 2007 Fair and though no sale has been concluded yet to my understanding, there are really many interested parties and I am sure that the orders would be sending to him in no time

Hope to see him soon in Singapore again and hope that Stephen could come along then so that we can have a fuller coverage of the two brothers and understand better their work as a team.


The watch
Below are some photos I have taken on the platinum tourbillon watch and please pardon the quality. While this watch is awesome in person but the two-level dial with the sapphire crystal dial and the black coated top movement make it extremely hard to photograph

I have chosen this particular watch instead of the other pink gold version to feature here as this watch was made by John McGonigle.

John and Stephen have actually agreed on all detailed including how to finish the watch but have decided to have their own name engraved on the back of the watch. This platinum piece has been done by John and you would be able to see it on the third photo below.

The strive for elegance, simplicity, precision and reliability pushes the brother to have taken the view that less is often more and thus adopted this principle into the design of their Tourbillon.

Notice in the above photos that the upper dial is machined out of a slice of sapphire crystal, with an opening at the six to expose the tourbillon cage and an additional opening in the dial at 12 o'clock to allow viewing of part of the barrel and the wolf-tooth gearing....

Also, the hour indexes are drilled into the sapphire to correspond with the hour indexes on the lower dial, which is actually part of the movement itself.


Movement side:

As can be seen here that this is a hand wound mechanical movement as there is no rotor in sight. According to John, the power reserve is in excess of 110 hours and interestingly blue synthetic sapphire jewel are used instead of the traditional red rubies. However, red rubies would be used on their Pink Gold version.

One point to highlight is that the mainplate and bridges are actually made from "German Silver", which has been used by some high grade watches because of its rigidity. The McGonigle brothers will then finish these mainplates and underside of the bridges with fine spotting and perlage.

There is also quite a number of misunderstandings as to the engraver of the movement at the back. NO, it is NOT their sister Frances who did the engraving as she is not an engraver! However, Frances artistic talent did influence her 2 brothers a lot and those hand engrave with a Celtic inspired design was actually the Design of Frances McGonigle!

Also, NO serial number was engraved on the movement and case! John explained that as the production number is really low and the requirement of the serial number is actually non-existence. Each piece is engrave with either John's or Stephen's name depending on who is making that piece and date when they started on that piece is also engraved as reference. At 6 o'clock position is engraved "Made in Ireland" as the brothers insist that they will return to Ireland for this project at least a few months a year and all their physical works for this project would be done there!


Another interesting angle to admire this marvelous creation:

Hope that I have provide some basic coverage of this watch, will at least on John McGonigle and you might want to check out their web-site to find out more about this passionate pair of brothers and their watches.

So far, only the McGonigle has produced only one design which is the Tourbillon watch, available in Platinum and Rose Gold. When asked about their future plans and if any other models are already in the pipeline, John chosen not to comment on this as he want to be able to present his finished prototype when announcing their new creation rather than revealing their plan and not being able to realize it later. This is such a down-to-earth gentleman he is, from my observation with the few days spent with him during the Tempus period.

Hope to see you soon my friend!


Cheers
KokChoon



p.s. Below are some portraits that I have taken of John, without him posing for me as I prefer the more "natural" shots. Processed black and white. Hope you guys like them: