Arnold & Son Royal Collection watches

The Arnold & Son Royal Collection is the brand's line of classical watches in the English tradition, inspired by the watches John Arnold made for King George III and the royal court. Arnold, born in Bodmin in 1736, made quantity production of marine chronometers possible in the early 1780s, and three of his timekeepers sailed on Captain Cook's second voyage.

The HMS1 sets the pattern: a thin 40 mm case around the hand-wound A&S1001, with two barrels, an 80-hour reserve and small seconds at 6 o'clock. The steel HMS1 (1LCAS.S01A.C111S) sits beside gold editions with decorated dials on the same 40 mm A&S1001 base: the white gold HM Beagle, the HM Horses and HM Goats on mother-of-pearl, the HM Pandas, the HMS1 Victory and the HMS1 Dragon, with a sculpted three-dimensional gold dragon on a black dial. The HMS Lady keeps the proportions by scaling the movement down (A&S1101) to a 34 mm case with a gem-set bezel. The HM Perpetual Moon moves to 42 mm and the hand-wound A&S1512, whose moon disc spans 10 to 2 o'clock and deviates by one day every 122 years.

The TB88 and TE8 turn the movement over so its works face the dial side. The TB88's dead-beat, or true beat, seconds hand counts whole seconds, a nod to Arnold's marine chronometers. Its number comes from the case of Arnold's earliest known pocket watch, and its hand-wound A&S5003 runs 100 hours from two barrels in a 46 mm case. The TE8 is a 44 mm hand-wound tourbillon on the A&S8000, in white gold with a ruthenium-treated movement in a run of 25. The TES and the TEC1, a tourbillon chronograph with a column wheel, share 44 mm red gold cases.

The 47 mm Hornet World Timer adds the equation of time and true solar time to world time, a GMT hand, a big date and the month, and also comes skeletonised. The Hornet James Cook Set, a rose gold edition of 25, carries hand-painted miniatures of events in the explorer's life.