George Daniels: Manx 'watch-making genius' celebrated

The life and work of a "watch-making genius" will be celebrated by many of the world's leading horologists later.

George Daniels, who spent most of his life on the Isle of Man, was behind some of the most important advancements in the field during his 60-year career.

After his death aged 84 in 2011, he left a lot of money to City, University of London, where he had been a student.

City's Professor of Scientific Instrumentation Ken Grattan said he was the "greatest horologist of his time".

London-born Daniels attended the Northampton Institute in Islington, which went on to become City.

During his life, he learnt to craft every component of his watches by hand and each could take more than 2,500 hours to complete.

One of his creations recently sold at auction for £3.2m, making it the most expensive watch in British history.

A spokesman for Sotheby's said the "level of creativity was out of this world".

After his death, the George Daniels Educational Trust administered the substantial funds he bequeathed to provide scholarships for City's students.

This year's fifth annual lecture in his honour will be taken by Jonathan Betts, a fellow of the British Horological Institute and a leading expert in marine horology.

The most successful of Daniels' inventions, the co-axial escapement, won him international acclaim and is regarded by experts as one of the most significant timekeeping developments within the last 250 years.

His invention was licensed to Omega in 1999.