I will certainly be adding a Thomas Russell & Son pocket watch to my wish list. Thomas Russell & Son is certainly synonymous with the Lancashire watchmaking industry and it’s an iconic brand for watch collectors.

It’s a long story with many Thomas’ involved and it takes a bit of mental effort to track them throughout the company history. It was a sad end to a long and illustrious history. The company was run by successive members of the Russell family until both the shops and the factory were finally closed down in 1994.

They invited Joseph Wright to become a director because of his knowledge of the business and his contacts in Switzerland. © The Vintage Wrist Watch Companyīernard’s son Thomas Graham Russell with Thomas Townsend Russell continued to run the company from 1915. Thomas Russell & Son hunter pocket watch. The sale of ships’ clocks and chronometers grew to become a significant source of income for the business. Liverpool was a major seafaring port at the time. He moved the business to Liverpool in about 1848 and launched his range of ‘Time ‘O Day’ watches. The business was taken over by his son Thomas. Thomas continued as a watchmaker in this location until his death in 1830. These were then collected and taken to the factory for assembly. Hundreds of outworkers were making one or two individual watch components in their cottages.

The whole area around Liverpool was a hive of watchmaking activity at this time. Thomas was the founding father of what was to become a watchmaking dynasty. He worked as an outworker or journeyman watchmaker before setting up independently in Lancaster in 1811. It was during this period that the original Thomas Russell was born (1780) in Cumbria. It was a thriving cottage industry in and around Lancashire with the components sold on for watchmakers to assemble. In the 18th century farmers and agricultural employees who wanted to supplement their income during the dark winter months could produce watch components in their home workshops.

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