My grandfather Albert Wagstaff was a wristwatch enthusiast, and also a proud countryman who love the countryside and being outdoors. When he died back in 2015 I got the unenviable task of sorting out his affairs and estate. Amongst those papers I found the drawings of some watches, designs and ideas and a certificate of incorporation which was pretty badly damaged. After speaking with me older siblings it transpired that Albert set up a watch company many moons ago, which had sadly failed before I was even born and he went on to other things. I never knew till this point. I sat down and explained this story to my two sons and we decide to investigate further and after discovery some more materials and papers we decided to have a go at relaunching Wagstaff Watches after a gap from 1949. It transpired Albert had set up back in 1923 and he started Wagstaff Watches and worked on producing wristwatches up to 1939 when WWII intervened and he had to stop the business struggled after that and eventually in 1948 was wound up. .

We hope you like our watch designs and want to take them out into the countryside too. Please share with us where you decide to go – you’ll find us online at all the usual places (see our Contact Us page for the links).

His passion for life, his intellectual curiosity and his love of all things countryside drove him on to design a field watch and try to make them with a swiss partner at a price that a working man could afford – though sadly we only have a few of his drawings left. We like to think he would have warmly approved of our designs as it bears a resemblance to one of his original drawings. We work with several production partners to get the watches produced but one day hope to have our own facilities to make them entirely in the UK.

At Wagstaff we take inspiration from his love of products that just do what they’re supposed to and do it well. What’s more, for a price Albert would nod his head at – and as far as possible affordable.
We love being outdoors and spend as much time as we can enjoying the air and the views, so if you think we are fuddy-duddies bent over desks with a jeweller’s magnifier stuck in one eye then think again! We are far keener to be out with the dogs, fishing, shooting or just walking over the hills. We support an apprenticeship programme for rural skills and we are working with a plan to assist the farming and rural community further – watch this space 🙂

Wagstaff Watches