British watchmaker George Daniels, who died last month, laboured to meticulously produce, entirely by hand, some twenty watches over a twenty-five year period.

An output of one timepiece every twelve months or so mightn’t sound prolific, but considering some of his watches sold at prices exceeding US$300,000 (login required), there’s no doubting it was a lucrative enterprise.

Between 1969 and the mid 1990s, he produced more than 20 exquisite pocket watches, each one taking more than a year to construct entirely by hand. They included several grand complication models, including a tourbillon minute repeater with perpetual calendar, equation of time, phases of the moon, thermometer and power reserve display. Of the few Daniels watches that have appeared on the open market, one fetched more than £200,000 ($318,427) in 2002.

Some watch companies like to photograph their (analogue) timepieces with the hands set at ten minutes past ten for advertising and marketing purposes. Why? Ten past ten is the equivalent of a smiley for a watch, that’s why.

Klaus Peter Mager, a spokesman for Swatch, said his 25-year-old company, based in Biel, Switzerland, has always photographed watches primarily at 10:10, because “they’re smiling instead of a sad man’s face.” About 30 percent of the more than 400 models Swatch introduces yearly are photographed set at different times so that the hands don’t obscure functions, he said.

Via Kottke.