March 11th, 2023 | Words and photography by DAHTT
Vintage Smiths Everest.
A close up look at a mid 1950's Smiths Everest.
There's an elephant in the room and it's wearing a Rolex. Let's address that one before we venture any further.
Having gotten hands on with vintage Rolex Oyster Perpetuals, I can tell you the overall quality far exceeds that of the Smiths De Luxe or Everest watches from the same period. The simple undisputable fact of the matter is though, despite being a better watch the Rolex wasn't the first watch to summit Mount Everest in 1953. That accolade goes to the Smiths De Luxe.
Don't take it from me, Sir Edmund Hillary himself stated in writing that "he took a Smiths watch to the summit and no other, and he has offered the actual watch which he wore to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers for permanent exhibition in their museum at the Guildhall."
Rolex even put out a statement acknowledging this at the time saying: "Sir Edmund Hillary was, in fact, only wearing one watch at the summit and that a Smiths watch. We congratulate Smiths on the fact that their Smiths Delux ordinary wind wristwatch reached the summit with Sir Edmund Hillary."
There were Rolex watches on the expedition, there was also an Omega CK2287 Chonometer which rarely gets mentioned! If you want to know more about the expedition and watches on the summit, there's an excellent piece by Mathew Knight which I'll link to at the bottom of the page.
The "summit" watch was a standard Smiths A404, which had been fitted at the factory with a custom dial, Smiths called this an A409. The case was made by Dennison and the movement was a hand winding, non hacking Cal.400 '1215' - a time only watch with a small seconds sub dial at six o'clock.
After the successful summit, Smiths released the "Everest", the same watch but with Everest printed on the dial. There are many different versions, some with the small seconds, some without, some with flashier dials, some with more basic field watch type dials.
This one has been in my collection for about five years now, so what's it like? Well it's tiny, crude, and one of the coolest watches I've ever had the privilege to wear!
I have miniscule wrists, six and a quarter inches approximately, but even on me this 33mm watch looks incredibly diminutive. The 16mm lug width doesn't help matters as you end up with a very thin looking strap.
It's for this reason that it's sort of migrated into my partners collection, she wears it quite regularly on a white leather strap and in that context it wears very well and looks even cooler.
The finishing is very basic. The case will be familiar to anyone who's handled a Dennison cased watch from the same period. Solid, functional but nothing especially stands out. A screwed, plain case-back and no screw down crown. Drilled lugs are a nice touch though.
The crystal distorts wonderfully in the way that only vintage watches do, and picks up scratches if you so much as glance at it in the way that all vintage watches do. The crown is unsigned and fantastically oversized for the case and one of my favourite visual features.
The off white dial has applied Arabic numerals in gilt/gold and "Smiths Everest" printed at twelve, with "Shockproof" printed just above the small seconds at six. "Made in England" at the very bottom of the dial always warms my heart.
The movement clicks when wound with absolutely no grace or refinement, but feels reasuring in a way that other vintage watches somtimes don't. It's a workhorse of a movement, in the five years I've owned it there has been no servicing and no issues. Impressive for a nearly 70 year old watch.
If this watch were just a tiny bit bigger I would wear it all the time. It's such a great conversation piece and such a simple but effective design. Knowing why this watch exists gives it unmatched gravitas in my collection. Everything it lacks in refinement it makes up for with personality. For that reason I'll likely never sell it.
Matthew Knights' superb article on the Smiths DeLuxe vs Rolex summit.