MrWatchMaster Meets…Bob Bray

Details: Category: Haute This Issue; Published on Monday, 28 July 2025 15:53; Written by MrWatchMaster

Next we meet Bob Bray who took over a failing Sinclair Harding ensuring a famous clock making name would survive. Today, the company is thriving with all the employees personally trained by Bob and part of the family, quite literally.

In 1995, Bob, the Managing Director of Sinclair Harding, combines traditional English clockmaking and modern technology to create some of the world's finest clocks. Bob came to clock making relatively late in life after a career as an engineer manufacturing small gears and gearboxes for aerospace, defence and medical applications.

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We hear his fascinating views on current business priorities, his favourite clock and the future direction of the company as it moves into the competitive world of fine watchmaking.

Carriage Clock (Image Courtesy of MrWatchMaster).

MWM: How is business?

BB: Business is picking up. We were very happy to survive Covid as I guess were most businesses. Our order book went from 11-months to less than 1-month overnight as all the retailers closed around the world. Luckily, we were able to sell most of the clocks that were finished to private clients and then for the first time in 25-years we made more clocks for stock and to sell and sold them.

Traditionally we relied on Basel world for our order intake and in its heyday, we could come home with a years' worth of work. Towards the end, 2019 things were not great, and I guess we would have seen the writing on the wall but it was a complete shock when it collapsed.

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In 2022, we exhibited with my colleagues in the AHCI in Geneva and for the last two years at Time to Watches (TTW), this year things seem to be getting back to how they were before Covid and TTW was like a mini-Basel. I believe we still need retailers to show our clocks around the world, however, many stores have now dedicated areas for a couple of the large brands, and it is almost impossible to get a clock into those stores.

It's also doubly difficult to find retailers with the expertise to provide the after-sales-service and we are working on how we can make that process easier for them.

MWM: What are your current business priorities?

BB: Simple, to generate cash, survive and keep investing in our people, new plant, and processes. To do that we need a mixture of our own brand clocks and prestige pieces (normally for other brands).

In 2022, we were in the unfortunate position with the wrong mix, I had quoted a few large projects during Covid, and they all ordered at once. However, with a lot of hard work from our small team we completed the projects and now seem to have a more manageable mix.

We have a couple of big years ahead, next year its 30-years since I took over Sinclair Harding and the year after it is 60-years since Sinclair Harding was founded. For the last 6-8 years we have been making practically every part for each clock and our workshop has not kept up with all the additional processes. Our plan is to re-organise our workshop and extra capabilities to enable us to push on with our watch project.

Three Train Skeleton Clock (Image Courtesy of MrWatchMaster).

MWM: Tell us something we don't know about Sinclair Harding

BB: Over the years I have been asked many times if we intend to make a watch and every time, I investigated it the less I understood it. It used to fascinate me watching the watch collectors at Basel who could walk past the most complex clock and not even notice it was there. We have made parts for some watch brands and in the last 6-months my eldest son, Domonic, has grabbed the bull by the horns and forced us to take it a little more seriously.

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So, with the help of my youngest son, Stuart, we now have a watch, very simple – it just tells the time, nice case (we think) and I am very proud of the result and especially the fact that except for the movement, hands and crystals, we make the rest.

As previously mentioned, we have a couple of milestones coming up, next year is 30-years since I took over Sinclair Harding, so we plan 30 watches. The year after it is 60 years since the company was founded – 60 for then, why not!

I was very happy when Roger W. Smith said it was "Not bad" at the British Watchmakers' Day event this year and when some guys from Patek came to the stand in Geneva they commented that the dial was "perfectly imperfect" – I will take that.

MWM: What is your favourite clock?

La Colonne du Temps (Image Courtesy of MrWatchMaster).

BB: Easy, the one that is just about to go out of the door to the customer. Actually, I don't have a favourite, new projects I fall in and out of love with as they develop, sometimes I am just pleased to see the back of them, older clocks I love when we make some changes that lift the level, but if I had to choose, I would say it's our La Colonne Du Temps (above).

People either love it or hate it, not hate, I think it's just not clear how it works, I call it our 'Marmite' clock.

It was a collaboration with Jorg Hysek and extremely challenging, we have some changes coming this year to put more of the mechanism on show, at least then I won't have to spend my time explaining its operation.

MWM: Which clock would you like to own?

BB: Any Sebastian Naeschke clocks.

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MWM: What do you like best about the business?

BB: I love seeing how our team has developed over the years and how they react to any challenge, be it a tight delivery or a technical problem to overcome. Personally, coming into work and being able to do anything I like. I love developing new processing technique, discovering old skills that we can incorporate into clocks.

John Harrison Sea Clock (Image Courtesy of MrWatchMaster).

MWM: What don't you like about the business?

BB: Nothing really about the business, but the financial challenges can be stressful, especially when you happen to employ pretty much your entire family. Personally, coming into work and NOT being able to do anything I like, and I hate being chased for deliveries, in fact it has a massive negative effect on me.

MWM: What is next on the horizon for you?

BB: My wife, Caron would say retirement. I have in my head an idea for a huge clock, just need someone to fund it.

Bob with Family at the Sinclair Harding HQ. (Image Courtesy of MrWatchMaster)

Bob Bray is a Friend of MrWatchMaster

Bio: MrWatchMaster

MrWatchMaster (MWM) presents a uniquely authoritative resource, covering news, opinion, reviews, and entertainment about the watch sector. We share our opinions and new 'points of view' from a range of leading watch makers, industry professionals, collectors, and other practitioners of horology. We keep you updated with the most interesting developments and provide our own take on new watches, trends, and anything else that will define the future direction of the sector. Andrew Canter is the Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of MrWatchMaster and a hugely passionate horologist and collector of watches and clocks. His fascination with watches started at an early age and purchased his first watch when still at school. He is a member of the Alliance of British Watch & Clock Makers, British Horological Institute (BHI), Antiquarian Horological Society (AHS), National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC), Horological Society of New York and RedBar Group.