200 Years of Heritage

Andrew Ross founded Ross & Co, a manufacturing optician based in Wigmore Street, central London, in 1829. By 1840 he'd started making lenses for cameras, and had an early association with Carl Zeiss in Jena, making Zeiss lenses for the British Empire. Ross also made the Calotype Camera lens used by William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of modern photography.

When Andrew Ross died in 1858, the business was split between his son Thomas and his son-in-law John Henry Dallmeyer. Dallmeyer established his camera lens making business in Bloomsbury Street, London. Here he pioneered the invention of some of the world's great camera lenses, including the Triple Achromatic lens, the Wide Angle Landscape lens, the Dallmeyer Patent Portrait lens and the Rapid Rectilinear.

The moving picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge used Dallmeyer lenses in his famous 1878 experiment to prove whether or not a horse had all four legs off the ground simultaneously when trotting.

In 1883 J H Dallmeyer died and the firm passed to his son Thomas. Further innovations were to come, including being the first to introduce telephotographic lenses into ordinary practice. During both World Wars, Dallmeyer Ltd produced gun-sights and other military equipment for the armed forces. Dallmeyer lenses continued to be manufactured right up until the 1970s.

In 1987 J H Dallmeyer was purchased by Watsham’s Electro-Optics Ltd.

Watsham’s was established in 1920 by Norman D. Watsham, engineer, at 33 King Street, in Covent Garden, London. In 1922 Watsham’s won an order from Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company for 2 types of crystal set and a valve receiver; the order for crystal sets was sub-contracted to Plessey Co. This was the start of Plessey’s diversification into radio and electronic manufacturing.

In the 1950s Watsham’s became specialists in erecting pylons and overhead transmission lines, and in the 1960s they were contractors to the Post Office for radio towers and masts.

During the 1970s and 1980s they diversified and changed direction, focussing on instrument making rather than electrical engineering and related structures.

In 1988 Watsham’s Technical Division was incorporated into the OMITEC group of companies.

Robin Ellsworth established Optical and Electrical Coatings Ltd., based in Reigate, Surrey and then subsequently moved to Totnes, Devon. The company started out by coating gold discs for the music industry.

Optical & Medical Coatings Ltd. was formed in 1982.

OMITEC became new title for Watsham’s Technical Division, now part of Optical & Medical International PLC. Robin Ellsworth was Managing Director.

OMITEC Electro-Optics manufactured mounted lenses, optics for instruments such as head up displays, night vision goggles, tank and mortar sights, video camera lenses, simulation systems, thin film technology, electro-optics.

The Thin Films Division of OMITEC Electro-Optics operated from its 12,000 sq. ft. production, design and administration building in Totnes, England. It product range included Anti-reflection coatings, transparent conducting windows, contrast enhancement filters, colour separation filters, fibre optics, NVG compatible filters and anti static coatings.

The Thin Films Division was spun off as a separate Limited Company.

In 1997 the Company was acquired by Avimo Europe Ltd and changed its name to Avimo Thin Film Technologies.

2001 The business was bought out by Thales Optics Ltd, a subsidiary of French multi-national Thales SA, and renamed Thales Optical Coatings Ltd.

At the end of 2005 Thales Optics Ltd (parent) was sold to Eye 6 Ltd and renamed Qioptiq Coatings Ltd the following year.

Artemis Optical Ltd was formed on 27th October 2008, after a management buyout from Qioptiq.

In 2023 Artemis Optical was purchased by G&H, a leading provider of precision optics and photonics solutions.