The bespoke watchmaker creating timepieces inspired by superyachts

George Bamford is taking the art of bespoke watches to new heights, including creating personalised timepieces
inspired by owners’ yachts, says Simon de Burton

When I ask George Bamford whether or not crew members of the celebrated Feadship Virginian, owned by his father, JCB boss Lord Bamford, have been  issued with customised wristwatches based  on the yacht’s elegant livery, he becomes momentarily silent.

“Do you know what? It has never even occurred to me to ask if I should make some,” he eventually replies. Which is surprising, considering the fact that Bamford junior has spent more than two decades carving a niche for himself as one of the world’s leading timepiece customisers through his London-based business, Bamford Watch Department (BWD).

Recently named as the most likely heir to his father’s business, Bamford, 45, has certainly not waited around to make his own name, setting up BWD after leaving university in 2003. Although he had already embarked on a career as a professional photographer, he was convinced (ahead of his time, it turned out) that a market existed for transforming high-quality, off-the-shelf watches into something more individual and personal.

The idea came after his parents gifted him a highly sought-after Swiss chronograph for his 21st birthday. Beautiful though it was, he quickly realised it was far from unique.

“The first time I wore it to a dinner party I noticed most of the other blokes around the table had exactly the same watch,” Bamford recalls.

The moment sparked an early collaboration with his father to create limited-edition Bamford & Sons models using carefully sourced vintage dive and travel watches from the 1970s. Their cases were stripped back, refinished with black military-grade PVD coatings and rebuilt into stealthy, highly distinctive pieces unlike anything else available at the time.

Collectors loved them, and soon Bamford began applying the same treatment to brand-new Swiss luxury watch brands – a process that inevitably invalidated the manufacturers’ guarantees, leading BWD to provide its own comprehensive warranty on completed pieces.

It was a bold, somewhat maverick operation, one that traditional Swiss watch houses initially viewed with suspicion. But in 2017, legendary watch industry executive Jean-Claude Biver approached Bamford with a proposition: would he become the official customisation partner for LVMH-owned Zenith?

It marked the moment the former outsider became an accepted creative force within the Swiss watch industry.

“It was what we called our experiential chapter, which led to us being embraced by the Swiss watch industry for our creativity and cool use of colour and design,” says Bamford.

“The knowledge we gained from those years of experimentation and working inside the industry has allowed us to use the experience gained  to create our Bamford London collections. For example, one of our first official collaborations involved asking TAG Heuer to use forged carbon for the Monaco. It’s now a staple material of our B347 and GMT collections.”

Alongside that original customisation service, Bamford launched and developed his own dial name in 2017 with a model called the Mayfair, which he was inspired to create following positive feedback from clients to whom BWD had loaned inexpensive “service” watches to use while their own were in for maintenance or repair.

The Mayfair proved so popular that it is now one of five ranges, including diving, GMT and chronograph models, with cases made from materials ranging from regular steel to ceramic and forged carbon.

Naturally, each model is designed to be fully customisable using the special BWD configurator, which offers multiple options for dial colour, hand colour, case material and strap or bracelet for each one – plus the opportunity to have the watch engraved with the owner’s initials or the dial stamped with a playful Bamford slogan.

Customised BWD watches have now been sold to multiple groups, teams and organisations for use by their members and, unsurprisingly, the boating world has caught on to the idea, too.

“I would estimate we have created one-off designs for the owners of around 20 different superyachts, with the largest individual order running to 28 pieces for a client who wanted each of his crew members to wear a GMT with a finish that matched the boat,” says Bamford.

“What we typically do is replicate the colour of a boat’s hull on the dial and decorate it with a unique line drawing of the silhouette. But when people make enquiries, we start by pointing them towards the online configurator which, I always say, is just the starting point, the initial inspiration from which ideas can grow to create something that’s really special.”

Recently, BWD designed a matching desk clock and GMT watch in the classic red, white and blue colour scheme of a client’s yacht, while another owner commissioned a set of 10 D300 dive watches in salt-, scratch- and heat-resistant ceramic for each of his boat’s 10 crew members.

“When you notice a beautifully turned-out yacht with an equally well-turned-out crew and a deck full of chic people, it really can be a stunning sight,” says Bamford.

“Well-presented boats are all about detail, and I think putting an appropriate watch on the wrists of each of your crew members is starting to be seen more and more as a detail that should not be missed,” says Bamford.

While the Bamford watch range is affordable (prices range from £350 to £2,500 before customisations, all at fixed prices), some owners are willing to spend more on pieces from recognised Swiss makers, such as Zenith. And they can be quite particular.

“We customised some Zenith El Primero chronographs by using the three dominant colours of the owner’s boat for each of the three subdials, then we double-signed it with the boat’s name. It looked vintage, but it was really cool, too,” he recalls.

“More recently, we received a DM on Instagram from someone who told us he had just bought a particular yacht and wanted a watch to go with it – and it had to have a blue dial in the colour of the ocean. But not just any ocean, specifically the Indian Ocean as it looks around the Maldives.”

With interest in such customised watches picking up among boat owners, Bamford’s fertile imagination is exploring ways to further expand the maritime theme, both in terms of designs and in the use of ocean-friendly materials.

“When it comes to straps, rubber is probably the most popular choice for fitting to a watch that’s worn on a boat, but we recently discovered a type of Cordura, which is made entirely from recyclable bio-materials and is durable against saltwater and sun.

“I’m also really keen to expand the customisation idea to include the packaging  the watches are supplied in,” says Bamford.

“We currently make a series of watch boxes in the shapes of golf balls, tennis balls, cricket balls and so on,” he continues. “I would really love to create some crew watches that can be handed over in boxes that are the same shape as the relevant boat – and someone has already asked us to make a box based on the life rings that they carry on board.

“As I say, the BWD configurator is just the start of things, a way of setting the ball rolling. After that, the only constraint is the imagination.” bamfordlondon.com

First published in the August 2026 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.