Fears Watches returns to Bristol 46 years after closing down

The company's oldest business card shows their first address

Bristol's oldest watchmaking company, which ran for 130 years before closing down, is returning to the city.

Fears Watches was established in 1846 by Edwin Fear, and was family-run until it shut in 1976, facing market opposition from cheap imported watches.

At its height in the 1930s, the company sold watches to 95 countries.

Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, Edwin Fear's great-great-great grandson, will open a showroom and manufacturing facility in Bristol by the end of 2022.

Currently, the watches are assembled in Norwich, with cases, dials and straps manufactured in Germany, France and Belgium, using leather from Bristol company Thomas Ware and Sons Ltd.

Mr Bowman-Scargill (l) is following in the footsteps of his great-great-great grandfather, Edwin Fear (r)

Mr Bowman-Scargill had never heard of the family legacy until a chance conversation with his mother.

"I wanted to leave my previous job at Rolex, and mum said to me 'why don't you restart the family watch company?'

"I knew my grandfathers had been watchmakers but she never told me this before," he said.

Second time around: Fears' history in Bristol

• Edwin Fear established the company at 33-35 Redcliff Street, Bristol in 1846

• The business expanded to Bristol Bridge in 1866, which was its headquarters until 1940

• An export department was started at 14 Brunswick Square in Bristol in 1920. The company dealt with so many orders that it had its own branch of the Post Office inside the warehouse

• Fears was badly hit by German bombing and the headquarters was demolished in the Blitz

• The company was dissolved in 1976 and stock was sold off cheaply to staff

• It was reincorporated in 2016

• The company marked its 175th anniversary in 2021

He reincorporated Fears Watches from a borrowed desk at his home in 2016 for £12 after finding that nobody owned the company's name.

Since then it has grown significantly, and he moved his headquarters back to the company's home in Bristol earlier this year with four full-time employees.

"I was very keen that we returned here - we wanted to pay taxes and employ people here," said Mr Bowman-Scargill.

The manufacturing facility will open by the end of the year

His biggest test so far has come from the Covid pandemic.

"Sales dried up in March 2020, so I took a 100% pay cut and did night shifts in Asda picking up online orders to keep Fears' staff going," he said.

Mr Bowman-Scargill has two major ambitions: to rebuild the company, and its archives, which were lost in the Blitz.

"We're scouring eBay for old Fears watches and photos - a lot of them are still in drawers in Bristol.

"I want people to work for Fears because they believe in what the company stands for - good capitalism, we don't want to screw people over," he said.