You have to leave that to the British - they probably have the most famous toll in the world. "The Voice of Britain" sounds every hour from the tower of Westminster Palace. That's where Parliament has been causing Brexit chaos for months. However, it is hardly known that the London family Dent completed the clock around 1854 and that today a watch label of the same name exists. A look at the model "Parliament" reveals how the brand is ticking. The dial of the Big Ben is then copied in miniature, surrounded by solid gold. Cost: more than 20,000 euros.

Typical London prices, but they are easy to top. For example, if Big Ben is not imitated optically, but acoustically. Because only a few factories master the supreme discipline of shrinking a mechanical chime on wrist size. Connoisseurs refer to such complications as minute repetitions. Jaeger-LeCoultre recently presented a Westminster carillon at the Geneva watch fair SIHH (Salon de la Haute Horlogerie). The upperclass factotum costs just under a million euros.

In the uppermost class, however, other status symbols are required. In 2004, the British royal family turned to Patek Philippe. Ordered was a unique, which harmonizes visually with various precious items of the Queen. After the first drafts had been personally approved by Elizabeth II, the Genevaers fiddled with the jewelry watch for two years. It is oval, decorated with diamonds and is worn on a pearl bracelet. The jewelery was first exhibited in public in 2015. The Queen was only ready to show her timepiece when the godfather of her grandmother's grandmother was shown next to her. Because even Queen Victoria was a fan.

Over that Switzerland dominates the luxury watch market, some Britons are not amused. After all, it was the English watchmakers whose ingenious inventions advanced time measurements in the Empire era. This tradition is authentically nurtured only by Roger W. Smith. On the Isle of Man, he produces almost ten ticking masterpieces almost entirely by hand each year. Even so much professional ethos, even Swiss colleagues have the highest respect. There was a knight order from Prince Charles in November 2018.

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Photo Gallery: Brit Chic Tick

Statement dressing is the easiest way to celebrate in national colors. But some manufacturers also install codes. Including Graham, which refers to the British watchmaker George Graham, but sitting in Switzerland. Demonstratively, the dial of the new pilot's watch is flagged with the Union Jack, it says "Brexit?". To underpin the message, the chronograph is equipped with a patriotic patent. It looks like a roll bar, serves as a pusher for the stopwatch and was invented in the Second World War for British bomber pilots.

The British are proud of their military but also of cult bands like the Rolling Stones. Those, in turn, find the Zenith brand good and therefore allowed her to use the Stones tongue in 2016. In the fan clock, a gyroscope mechanism is constantly spinning around its own axis, almost like the Brexit negotiations. Only five copies for rock rich rocker were made. They were sold out right away - despite the more than 220,000 euros each.

Getunte Rolex for London Rich Kids

Britain's most famous comic troupe is not the Cabinet, but Monty Python. Their "Ministry of Silly Walks" provided the template for the most emblematic Brexit Watch. It serves a pair of legs as a pointer, which sometimes leads to absurd contortions, just in the spirit of the Ministry of silly passages.

But it is even shriller. In 2003, George Bamford came up with the idea of ​​pimping on luxury watches according to customer requirements. His Rolex with cartoon characters like Popeye, Snoopy and Flash Gordon created a hype for London's rich kids and dandies. Today, the Bamford Watch Department is one of the most famous watch tuners worldwide and is under contract to the luxury group LVMH. Since then, Bamford has only refined Zenith, Bulgari and Tag Heuer.

Other English watch enthusiasts started their own brands. Above all, the brothers English. In 2002 they founded Bremont, today one of the island's largest watch brands. The Englishs flatter Britannia with creations that honor icons like the British Armed Forces or Jaguar. The clockwork, however, ends patriotism - they come almost exclusively from Switzerland.

Just as with the youngster brand IWI, which sets with martial eye-catchers on motorsport. However, the design conception and the housing production take place on the island in order to promote the watches as "Luxury Watches Manufactured in England".

Watchmaker with anti-Brexit concept

For Giles Ellis, the "Made in England" of many watchmaker colleagues is a blatant marketing bluff. His motto at Schofield: Design with Bauhaus character paired with fair prices and an anti-Brexit concept. The technology and components of the best suppliers in Europe are installed. This is especially popular with young creatives and the avant-garde among watch fans worldwide.

If the British only wish that Brexit does not repeat a story like that of the watch brand founded by the German businessman Hans Wilsdorf in London in 1905, the company "Wilsdorf & Davis" made watches in Switzerland to be used in the to expel British Empire. When the British raised protection duties in the First World War, Wilsdorf went to Switzerland in 1919 together with the company. Today, there are nearly one million watches a year and an estimated turnover of 4.5 billion euros. The brand is called Rolex.