2015年8月
文／Andy Lee
(此文的翻譯版本在本頁下方)
Dr. George Daniels C.B.E (1926 – 2011) is regarded by many as having been the greatest watchmaker of the last 250 years. He was the first person in history to make every component of a watch, from scratch and by hand.
It was a task which involved mastering more than 30 long-forgotten skills to painstakingly craft 150 individual components, before developing a mechanism which ensured absolute accuracy. Each of his creations – regarded as works of art by many – could take more than 2,500 hours to complete. And it was all done from a single workshop at the back of his home on the Isle of Man.
Watchmaker Roger Smith, who moved to the Isle of Man in 1988 to work with Dr Daniels, said: “It is the equivalent of one man designing and making every single component of the greatest car the world has ever seen in his garage at home, right down to putting hide leather on the seats and hand stitching it.”
Some of the skills could take years to master. Traditionally one man would sit down every day and he would make wheels, another skilled craftsman would make pinions. There are five trades alone involved in making one pocket watch case and you would have hand makers, dial makers and so on. He did the lot. In a remarkable career spanning 60 years, Dr Daniels dedicated himself to the pursuit of watchmaking perfection. When he died at the age of 85 in 2011 he had completed 24 of the most extraordinary and technically advanced watches ever made.
Every single watch he made had at least two major technical advancements and when completed each one was the most technically advanced watch in the world. At a Sotheby’s auction in November 2012, The Space Traveller’s watch, invented to commemorate the first moon landing, was the highest selling item at £1.32m.
George Daniels was never satisfied with what had been done before. He always studied and examined his work and improved upon it.
We may not share the same passion for watchmaking as George did, but we would do well to follow his example of dedication to his chosen trade.
What could you be a master of if you never accepted that your last piece of work was your best? What if you chose to believe that you can do it better next time? You can know that you are a person of great potential, but sooner or later simply knowing it is not enough. It is time to act.
To be so focused in every aspect of your life on a daily basis is probably setting the goal out of reach, but what if you hand-picked a few things that you could do better than the last time? Instead of comparing ourselves to the person next to us, let’s work towards fulfilling our own potential. Maybe patience is an issue for you – if that’s the case, then focus on being slower to anger next time. If it’s a business that you run, when did you last take time out to evaluate your business to see what improvements could be made? This could be anything from treatment of staff to streamlining procedures, reviewing suppliers, expanding the customer base etc. It could be your personal finances that need looking at, maybe you don’t save enough? Maybe there are issues with debt that need to be handled better? Whatever it is that might have popped into your head, the point is to move forward. Make progress. Improve. Do it better. Why? Because you can. But that’s not the reason why you should. The reason why you should is because it would be a waste not to.
術業專攻，日益精進
原文：李民輝
翻譯：啟思
喬治‧丹尼爾斯博士（大英帝國司令勛章獲得者）（1926 – 2011）是過去250年公認為最傑出的製錶大師。他也是史上第一位能手工製作手錶所有零件的人。這項浩大的工程包括要掌握三十餘種近乎失傳的技藝，精心琢磨150個獨立零件，最終才能組裝成絕對精密的手錶。他的每一件作品——或許應稱為藝術品才對——都需要花上超過2500小時來製作完成，而這一切，都始於他在馬恩島上自家後院的工作坊。
製錶大師Roger Smith於1988年搬到馬恩島上和丹尼爾斯博士一起工作，他說：「這就和一個人在自家後院的車庫裡設計並製造出世界上最好的車的每一個零件一樣，從在座位上鋪上皮子到把它手工縫好，樣樣都需精通。」
有些技能可能要花上數十年的時間才能掌握。一般來說，一個人得每天堅持坐在工作臺前製造齒輪方可熟能生巧，而另一些技師歷時良久才能成為小齒輪的專家。一塊懷錶的製造足足會涉及五個行業的專業技能，上至錶針，下至錶盤。而他卻一個人完成這所有的工作。丹尼爾斯博士將他自己的一生都奉獻給了鐘錶製造業，六十餘年，至臻完美。他在2011年去世，享年85歲，而此前他已經完成了24塊世界上技術最先進的鐘錶。
他製造的每一塊錶都至少會有兩大創新的技術，而每一塊錶在完成時都成為了當時世界上技術最先進的錶。在2012年11月的蘇富比拍賣會上，他為紀念人類第一次登月而製造的「時間旅行者」手錶，拍出了132萬英鎊的高價，成為了價值最高的拍賣品。
喬治‧丹尼爾斯從不滿足於自己取得的成就。他一直在學習，不斷對自己的作品進行檢驗完善。
也許我們並沒有和喬治對待製錶一樣的熱情，但是我們應學習他對於自己所選擇行業的奉獻之心。如果你認為自己剛完成的那項作品並不是你最好的作品，那你又怎能成為自己行業的大師呢？而如果你選擇相信自己下一次會做得更好，那你必然會日益精進。要知道你是充滿潛能的，然而，僅僅知道是不夠的。是時候行動了！
每天專注於生活中的各個方面可能是一個難以達到的目標，但如果你選擇一些自己能比上次做得更好的事，情況就會大有不同。不去將自己與周圍的人相比，而是努力去完成我們自己能做的事情：也許你總是缺乏耐性——那就試著讓自己放慢腳步，不要急躁；如果你是公司的老闆，那麽想想你上一次花時間去評估自己在哪些方面取得了進步又是在什麽時候呢？可能是對待自己的員工、是流水化作業的流程，或是檢查供應商，是擴大客戶群等；如果你需要回顧自己的個人財務狀況，是不是需要更審慎理財？也許你需要更好地處理自己的債務問題……無論躍進腦海的事情是什麽，你都需要不斷向前。去進步。去提升。去做得更好。為什麽？因為你能。但這並不是你應該去這樣做的原因。你應該這樣做，因為天生我材必有用。