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This English firm was founded by George Wickes in 1730 and taken over by Parker & Wakelin after his retirement in 1760. Robert Garrard (1758–1818), who was not a working silversmith but had been made a freeman of the Grocers’ Company of London in 1780 and thereafter had been accountant to Parker & Wakelin, became a partner in the firm in 1792. The joint mark of Robert Garrard and John Wakelin (1776–1802) was entered in that year. Wakelin was appointed Goldsmith and Jeweller to George III in 1797, and, upon Wakelin’s death, Garrard assumed sole control of the prestigious London-based firm, entering his own mark that year.
In 1915 the 'Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company' was founded in Willesden, North West London. This company was part of 'Garrard the Crown Jewellers', producing precision parts for militairy applications. After WW1 the production of spring-driven motors was started. By 1925, eleven types of spring-driven motors were being made at a rate of 350,000 a year, and when Garrard's went public in 1926, further expansion followed. In the late twenties the factory was moved to Swindon, Wiltshire.
In 1930 Garrard introduced a complete gramophone, in 1932 the first record changer (Garrard RC1) is presented.
In 1945 the 'Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company Ltd' is founded. In 1954 the first Garrard Hi-Fi turntable, the famous model 301, is presented. Garrard provided the rock 'n' roll era with its high quality turntables, but it also produced a range of lower quality models for the mass market. It was, indeed, a golden era, but it couldn't last.
In 1979 Garrard's is sold to a Brazilian firm, Gradiente, for a nominal fee, and in 1982 production in Swindon ceased altogether - the last 179 jobs out of more than 4,500 less than ten years earlier, finally axed.
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