A Tradition of Excellence

Thomas Watson was the son-in-law of the renowned gun and revolver maker William Tranter. In 1875 Thomas Watson acquired the company and premises of Durs Egg at 4 Colonnade, Pall Mall. Durs Egg was a gunmaker of Swiss origin who established his business in London in 1772 and subsequently became gunmaker to George IV in 1820.
The company was famous for arms of the highest quality and Thomas Watson continued and enhanced this reputation, in particular as a maker of the finest small bore shotguns, a reputation the company still maintains today.

In 1885 Thomas Watson’s son, Arthur and Thomas succeeded to the firm as the eponymous Watson Brothers, continuing the gunmaking traditions established by their father. Today Watson Bros. remains a privately owned and managed business making guns and rifles of exceptional quality.

When Arthur and Thomas Watson took over from Thomas senior back in 1885 they decided to actively create and promote a small bore market, this became so successful that any lady or young gent about town would visit us at 29 Old Bond St London W1.
As W.B reputation grew so did their client base attracting royal warrants from such exotic lands as Turkey and Persia. With demand high over a 100 year period W.B built 17,000 guns of which all the records are still held, specialising in all varied forms of fine sidelock ejectors.

Always an ambitious gunmaker and keen to experiment, Michael Louca was not satisfied to just copy the rest of the trade.

As the ideas flowed, soon off the production line was a new racy roundbody side by side with a distinct coffin shape taper on the back of the action.

Scroll to top