Simon Jeffs, Founder, Brooklands Watch Company (United Kingdom)
What is speed without time to measure it?
At the December 2026 lecture of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), Simon Jeffs, Founder of Brooklands Watch Company, will explore this fundamental question through the remarkable story of Brooklands — the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit, where in 1907, timekeepers measured speed within a thousandth of a second — the same precision used in Formula 1 today.
From Percy Lambert’s heroic 100 miles in one hour to John Cobb’s land speed records, from pioneering women racers like Kay Petre to the engineers who understood that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,”; Brooklands became Britain’s crucible of speed where every victory, every record, every tragedy was defined by the tick of a chronograph.
Jeffs will reveal how this obsession with precision timing connected watchmaking to human ambition, featuring figures from Reid Railton to George Daniels (who once owned the legendary 1929 Birkin Bentley that set Brooklands’ lap record), and trace the journey from mechanical stopwatches wielded by officials dodging flying gravel to the sophisticated timing systems that made motorsport possible. The lecture will culminate with Jeffs’ own connection to this heritage through Sir Terence Conran, whose parents were Brooklands regulars and who designed Brooklands’ debut watch — the British design icon’s only timepiece.
*Doors open at 5:30 PM ET, lecture to begin at 6 PM ET. RSVP is required.
** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.
About Simon Jeffs
An aero-mechanical systems engineer and aviation entrepreneur, Simon Jeffs founded Brooklands Watch Company in 2017 after discovering the Holden Apparatus—the world’s first motor racing chronograph, accurate to a thousandth of a second in 1907—at Brooklands Museum. He persuaded Sir Terence Conran to design the brands debut Triple-Four Racing Chronograph, the British design icon’s first and only watch design.
Since launching, Brooklands has established itself through its core purpose: “we give meaning to speed,” manifested not only through Swiss-made timepieces but through Simon’s sponsorship of Richard Noble OBE’s Thrust WSH water speed record programme. A defining milestone came when The Jockey Club selected Brooklands as its British watch partner to create the Golden Miller Racing Chronograph, reflecting a historical connection to the Brooklands racetrack.