Meridian

Meridian came to fruition with its launch in November 2012 at Salon QP. The ambition was always to produce a British made watch on home soil using British components. Simon Michlmayr, a second-generation watchmaker and Fellow of the British Horological Institute founded his clock and watch repair company S Michlmayr & Company Limited in 1986 but often dreamed of manufacturing his own brand of watch. With the help of some very talented people he has now achieved just that with ‘The Prime Collection’ and a range of five calibres based around a Swiss movement. It is a watch that is intended to be worn, knocked about and enjoyed and sturdy enough to keep time through exposure to anything the elements can throw at it, whether in Britain or abroad. The watch case is manufactured completely in Michlmayr’s Norwich workshops from one solid piece of stainless steel, ensuring durability.

With each case and back manufactured as a pair, they fit together perfectly and uniquely. The timepieces are water-resistant down to 1000 feet. The sandwich dial is constructed by hand and its brass back is painted in the preferred dial colour, with SuperLuminova™ applied for enhanced visibility in poor light conditions. The stainless steel chapter ring is then fitted, enabling the SuperLuminova™ to show through the apertures in the dial itself. The skeletonised stainless steel hands, too, have been made, polished and painted on site. They are hand-colleted to the central shaft. Assembled from raw parts in the Norfolk workshops to Meridian’s specification, from a Swiss-made Unitas 6497/98 base calibre, the completely reworked ebauche serves as a platform for the modifications and modules that define the five Prime calibres. The crown is manufactured from 316 Stainless Steel. It is a double seal screw down with machined Meridian emblem and is finished to match the case.