05-03-2025
New Watch to Honor British Racehorse's Winning Career
A Brooklands Watch Company timepiece honoring a legendary British racehorse is scheduled to debut next week in collaboration with the annual Cheltenham Festival of British horse racing.
The Golden Miller Racing Chronograph, with a stopwatch function, was designed to commemorate Golden Miller, the horse who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup every year from 1932-36. The watch was created in partnership with the Jockey Club, founded in 1750, which operates 15 major British racetracks and training grounds.
The 100-piece limited edition has a 41-millimeter stainless steel case with an automatic movement by Sellita, a SW500 Bv b, and is priced at 6,800 pounds ($8,630). As an added touch, the strap buckles were made with an aluminum alloy melted from one of the horseshoes worn by the horse in 1934.
It will be the second watch introduced by Brooklands, which was founded in 2017 by Simon Jeffs and named after the motor racing circuit and aerodrome in Surrey, England, now an aviation and motoring museum.
'My uncle invited me to Brooklands Museum in 2017 to see his racecar, built at Brooklands around 1936, and I couldn't believe the level of expertise,' said Mr. Jeffs, an aeromechanical systems engineer, referring to his uncle, John, who was a British Airways Concorde engineer and a racecar collector. 'My day job is taking airplane engines apart, so I'm always amazed at the intricacies of all engines. I wanted to capture the Brooklands heritage in a watch brand.'
Brooklands' debut watch was the Triple-Four Racing Chronograph, a 500-piece design issued in 2023 at £5,754. It was created by Terence Conran, the celebrated British designer and restaurateur, before his death in 2020, and produced by the Swiss watchmaker Roventa Henex. That chronograph honored the Napier-Railton racing car, built at Brooklands in 1933.
The expansion of Brooklands' offering is seen by some as a harbinger of the future of watchmaking in the country.
'We're in a resurgence in the British watch industry, and people like Simon are coming in with an engineering background and might be able to help bring at least some degree of manufacturing back to Britain,' said Alistair Audsley, the chief executive of British Watch & Clock Makers, a trade association established in 2020. 'In 1850, the British made about half of the world's watches, but by 1970, it was virtually zero.'
For Mr. Jeffs, the Brooklands watches are a testament to that history — and to the future. 'The Triple-Four and the Golden Miller are pieces of art with a purpose,' he said. 'They have a beating heart and a story of British motor racing and horse racing to tell.'
