Watchmaker Roger Smith admits his business is ‘one of the lucky ones’ and has continued to be an island success story during the coronavius pandemic.

He said: ‘We have been in the fortunate position that we have been able to social distance in the workshop.

‘The team are all spread out well.

‘We cannot take any of our work home, it has to be done in the workshop so it’s a case of carrying on and it’s business as usual.

‘We have been one of the lucky ones.’

Mr Smith, who is known around the world for his magnificent timepieces, took time out to discuss with Business News how he has been coping during the Covid-19 crisis.

‘There’s 11 of us at the moment. We have a large spacious workshop and there is more than two metres distance between all the benches.

‘We stagger our break times and it all works well.

‘Right from the very beginning we abided by all the guidelines and we have been able to carry on. It’s worked well really.’

Asked what orders are like at the moment he said: ‘We are always working with a backlog of work, and I can’t complain about anything really. It’s been busy and I have to say we are in something like a micro-bubble.

‘There are some terrible things going on in the world and I think economies are being crucified but there is still a lot of interest in what we

do.’

Mr Smith was awarded the OBE for his ‘outstanding services to watchmaking’ a couple of years ago.

Morale in the team has been good – he acknowledged there were ‘quite a few concerns’ at the start of the crisis but by ‘following the rules’ they had carried on more or less as normal.

Because of the demand for their watches, Mr Smith has kept all 11 members of his team on.

‘We have not had to furlough anyone and we have just been carrying on which is great.’

The acclaimed horologist is now concentrating on ‘series six’ of his watches but he is keeping the details under wraps.

‘I always say it’s like working on your next album, you’re only as good as your last album. I am keeping it under wraps for the moment but there is a huge amount of interest in it.

‘It’s an exciting project really and it’s something very different.’

Mr Smith, married to Caroline, has been watchmaking in the island for more than 20 years. His mentor was the late great island watchmaker George Daniels. He added: ‘I’m excited to get the project up and running, I’m trying to create a body of work which will also be of interest to collectors around the world.’

And Mr Smith said that despite the health crisis he has continued to receive calls from all around the world.

‘It’s been very much business as usual, which I’m almost embarrased to say it has been, because so many people are struggling at the moment.

‘It is interesting having conversations with people and how they are tackling things around the world.’

For instance they recently sold a watch worth more than £100,000 to a customer, a doctor, based in America.

‘He has been right in the thick of it and the arrival of his watch was very welcome .’

Mr Smith has previously travelled to America on speaking engagements and he has loyal fans around the

world.

He has had to call off some business trips to London so has had to rely, like so many others, on video conferencing platforms such as Zoom.