William Wood

William Wood Watches was founded in 2017 by Jonny Garrett, named for his late grandfather, who served more than 25 years in the British Fire Service, stationed at Pilgrim Street with the Newcastle & Gateshead Fire Brigade on the Blue Watch shift. On 29 June 1966, William Wood and three colleagues saved five children, aged between one and five, from a house fire, earning the first Certificate of Merit ever awarded in the brigade's history; he passed away in 2009, before ever seeing the brand built in his name.

The house logo is drawn from the side profile of a 1920s British firefighter's helmet, and that same imagery runs through the watches themselves: several collections, including the entry-level Chivalrous line and the Triumph Custodian Edition, set their crowns or casebacks with brass melted down from genuine century-old British fire helmets, while straps across the range are cut from upcycled fire hose, including hose from Tyne and Wear, the founder's grandfather's own fire region, stamped 'made from rescued materials.'

The brand has been covered by the New York Times, Forbes, the Financial Times, and the Guardian, is stocked by Watches of Switzerland Group, and has supplied watches to fire departments around the world, including the FDNY, the world's largest, whose New York store once displayed a William Wood piece carrying William Wood's own name on the dial. It has donated more than $250,000 to firefighting charities, holds a five-star Trustpilot rating across more than 1,800 reviews as Great Britain's top-rated watch manufacturer, and is a member of the British Watchmakers Alliance.

The range spans Dunkirk, the flagship at £3,995; the Triumph chronograph line, from £2,525 for the Heat, Oxygen, and Fuel editions up to £2,995 for the Vintage and Custodian editions; Fire Exit at £1,495; Never Forget at £1,100; Bronze and Fearless, each from £920 across several dial colours; Valiant at £820 in five colourways; the Fire Extinguisher collection and the standalone Great Fire of London watch, both £995; and Chivalrous, the entry point at £495, offered in Peacock, Midnight Blue, British Racing Green, and Chocolate.

The Triumph Custodian Edition, an olive green chronograph, illustrates the house style at its most technical: its dial is etched with circle-chain patterns drawn from a Victorian firefighter helmet's chin strap, its crown cast from a genuine, melted-down 100-year-old British brass firefighter's helmet, and its sapphire crystal tinted medium blue specifically in tribute to William Wood's Blue Watch shift pattern. Inside is the Swiss-made Sellita SW510 chronograph movement, 48 hours of reserve, 27 jewels, running at 28,800 vibrations per hour; the 41mm case stands 16mm thick, water resistant to 100 metres, backed by a three-year international warranty with service centres in the UK, US, and Asia.