Project Logo 

The "Tick-Tock"
The visitor in 1962

 

A report by T.R. Robinson F.B.H.I. in the "HOROLOGICAL JOURNAL" January 1963

The British watch industry, which has made such remarkable strides since the Second World War, is being increasingly exposed to the relentless blast of world competition by progressive reductions of quotas and duties. Entry into the European Common Market would be another step in the same direction. How well will it survive? Very well, to judge by an inspection of the Anglo-Celtic factory, where mechanisation is combined to the fullest extent with the basic skills. The lesson of the past has been well learned. 
  Location and setting
Anyone who pictures all South Wales as one big stretch of grimy mining valleys, vast colliery sidings, and smoke-belching chimneys will find just how mistaken they are if they visit Ystradgynlais, for the whole surroundings of the Gurnos Works of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. have nothing grim or sordid about them, and, in fact rather resemble the Jura area of Switzerland.

 

Gurnos Works
from the air
 

Gurnos worksThe factory itself, which stands close beside the very similar Enfield Works where Smiths Clocks are produced, was built on a stretch of former parkland, and is in ideal surrounding, and as modern, clean, and attractive as even a watch factory can be. Placed well back from the road, the works is arranged with its executive and drawing offices in front, the raw-material and finished part stores behind them, and the machine shops behind them again, with the movement assembly section housed in spacious two-storey halls - one can hardly call them "shops" - that provide perfect conditions for this work. 
  There are 7 pages on the visit in 1962. Use the box links below to see the other pages