Forbes and Lomax vs Studio Timeless: An Honest Comparison

Forbes & Lomax and Studio Timeless solve the same problem in two different ways: the British range mounts a separate metal or clear plate over a mechanism on a fixing ring, while Studio Timeless builds the plate and the device as one solid brass unit. That single structural choice explains almost every practical difference between them, from what your wall box has to do to what happens when one lever fails.

In short

• Forbes & Lomax is a British company founded over 35 years ago by an interior designer, manufacturing in the United Kingdom, with United States showrooms in New York and Los Angeles.
• Its signature product is the Invisible Lightswitch, a plate designed to disappear against wallpaper, fabric or specialist paint.
• Its published United States toggle data sheet gives 120/277VAC at 15A, conformance to UL 20 and CSA C22.2 No. 111, copper or copper-clad 12 or 14 AWG only, and a wall box recessed at least 4 mm below the wall surface.
• Studio Timeless builds solid brass switches as single-piece units for the American box, made to order, in eight finish names across the catalogue.
• Choose the British system when the plate itself is the design statement and a second trade is available to fit it. Choose the one-piece unit when the wall is being specified on a drawing and nobody wants a two-stage installation.

Who Forbes and Lomax are

Forbes & Lomax is a British switch maker founded over 35 years ago by Serena Herbert, an interior designer who could not find an elegant switch for her own projects. The company reports that all its manufacturing is in the United Kingdom, and it keeps a showroom at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour in London, with United States showrooms at the D&D Building on Third Avenue in New York and on North La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood.

The founding story is the usual one in this category and it is worth taking seriously, because it explains the product. The elegant glass and Bakelite fittings of the 1920s and 1930s had disappeared from the market, which by the late 1980s was dominated by bulky moulded plastic. The response was a range built around the plate as an object: metal, painted, or clear.

The current catalogue covers toggle switches, rotary dimmers, momentary push buttons, outlets and home automation, with a bespoke engraving service and nine named finishes on the United States site: Invisible, Stainless Steel, Antique Bronze, Aged Brass, Unlacquered Brass, Nickel Silver, Brushed Brass, Matte Brass, and The Painted Range.

Who Studio Timeless is, and why the comparison comes up

Studio Timeless makes solid brass electrical hardware for the United States market: toggle switches, rotary dimmers, outlets, wall plates and door and cabinet hardware, built to order rather than held deep in stock.

The comparison comes up constantly for one reason: anyone specifying a metal switch for an American house eventually finds the British makers, and then has to work out what a British range means on a 120V circuit in a rectangular steel box. That is a legitimate question with a factual answer, and it deserves better than a sales page on either side. This article gives the facts as each company publishes them, and says where each one is the better choice.

If you arrived here comparing several brands rather than these two, our broader survey of solid brass switch brands is the wider view, and this page is the detail on one of them.

The structural difference: a plate on a fixing ring, or a single-piece unit

Everything else follows from this. In the Forbes & Lomax system, as its own United States assembly instructions describe, the device consists of a yoke that screws to the wall box, a fixing ring that threads over it, and a separate wallplate that attaches last. Spacers or shims are used to bring the yoke level with the wall surface, and a small plastic spanner is supplied to undo the fixing ring. The plate is fitted after the electrical and decorative work is complete, deliberately, so it does not get damaged during the build.

In the Studio Timeless system there is no separate plate. The brass face and the working device are one assembly, and they go on the box in a single operation. Nothing threads over anything; nothing is fitted later by a second trade.

Neither approach is better in the abstract. The British one gives you a plate that can be swapped, painted, wallpapered or made invisible, at the cost of a multi-stage installation. The American one gives you an installation that finishes when the electrician leaves, at the cost of the plate not being a separate object you can change your mind about. Our plate and cover sizing guide goes through what the single-piece convention means when you are used to buying the two halves separately.

What the British fixing ring asks of an American wall

Here is the detail almost nobody writes down, and it decides whether an installation goes smoothly. The Forbes & Lomax United States instructions call for the wall box to be recessed a minimum of 4 mm below the surface of the wall, and recommend a two-inch deep box for easier installation. The plate cannot seat flat unless that recess exists.

Now put that next to the American rule. NEC 314.20 allows a box in a non-combustible wall surface to be set back no more than 1/4 inch, which is about 6.35 mm, and 314.21 limits the gap at the edge of the box opening to 1/8 inch. So the British requirement of at least 4 mm and the American ceiling of 6.35 mm leave a working window of roughly two millimetres.

That window is the whole story. It is achievable, and it is not a conflict, but it has to be planned: the box has to be set at the right depth before the plaster or drywall goes on. An existing box that sits proud of the finished wall, which is extremely common in older American houses, will not accept the British plate without being reset. A one-piece unit is more forgiving there, because it mounts on the device yoke and the face carries its own bearing surface, though even then a box more than an inch back needs a screw extension rather than a longer screw.

Our article on removing and replacing a wall plate on plaster walls covers box setback, screw length and extensions in detail, with the six real causes of a plate that will not sit flat. Read it before you order anything from anyone.

The Invisible plate, and what it asks of your decorator

The Invisible Lightswitch is Forbes & Lomax's best known product and the reason the company exists. It is a plate intended to disappear against its background, with versions made to work with wallpaper, fabric wallcovering and specialist paint effects. Done well, it is genuinely remarkable: the lever floats on a wall with no visible frame.

What it asks for is coordination. The wall finish has to be prepared for the plate, the plate goes on after the decorating, and the result depends on the quality of the paint or paper behind it. On a hand-finished plaster or a fabric wall with a good decorator, that is a strength. On a fast renovation with one crew and no paperhanger, it is a risk, because a plate that is meant to be invisible is unforgiving of an imperfect background.

Studio Timeless does not offer an equivalent, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Our closest position is the opposite bet: a blank brass plate or a visible brass face treated as a deliberate piece of metal on the wall. If your design intent is for the switch to vanish, the British range does something we do not do.

Toggle, dolly and rocker: a language problem worth clearing up

British and American catalogues use different words for the same parts, and it causes real ordering mistakes. In Britain the small lever on a switch is commonly called a dolly, and a switch controlled from two positions is a two-way switch. In the United States the lever is a toggle, and the same two-position arrangement is a 3-way switch. A British two-way and an American 3-way are the same circuit under two names.

The trap sits one step further. A British four-way and an American 4-way are not the same thing; in American usage a 4-way is the intermediate switch in a three-location circuit. If you are reading a British data sheet and an American wiring diagram side by side, count the locations rather than trusting the label. Our wiring guide sets out single-pole, 3-way and 4-way in American terms, and toggle versus rocker covers the format question separately.

Ratings and certification, stated exactly

This section is deliberately literal, because certification is the area where comparisons go wrong most often and where an inspector will not accept a paraphrase.

Forbes & Lomax's published United States toggle switch data sheet gives a rating of 120/277VAC at 15A, states that only 12 AWG or 14 AWG copper or copper-clad conductors may be connected, prohibits aluminium wire, and states that the product conforms to UL standard UL 20 and CSA standard C22.2 No. 111. UL 20 is the standard for general-use snap switches. Note the wording: conformance to a standard and a listing by a certification body are related but not identical claims, and if a listing mark matters to your authority having jurisdiction you should ask for the certificate rather than infer it.

On the Studio Timeless side the position is mixed and we publish it as such. The brass fan speed control is 120VAC, 60Hz and UL Listed. The Retro Toggle range is CE marked and is not UL or ETL listed, and we say so on the product pages rather than letting a buyer assume. NEC 110.3(B) requires listed equipment to be installed in accordance with its listing, and your inspector decides what is acceptable in your jurisdiction, not a manufacturer.

The honest summary: if a UL or ETL listing on every device is a hard requirement of your project, neither catalogue satisfies it across the board, and you must check device by device.

Gang counts, and how far each range goes

Forbes & Lomax publishes 1-gang up to 6-gang plates as standard, with larger plates available on request, and states that toggles, push buttons and rotary dimmers can be mixed on one plate.

Studio Timeless currently ships the knurled toggle in 1 through 4 gang, the Retro Toggle in 1 through 4 gang, and the knurled rotary dimmer in 1 through 5 gang. Beyond that the route is the custom configurator, which handles larger plates, mixed openings and engraving up to twenty positions, explained step by step in our configurator walkthrough.

Two mounting facts apply to Studio Timeless plates whatever the gang count. Fixings are two screws per gang, not two per plate, on the standard American 6-32 thread: a 3-gang carries six screws, a 5-gang carries ten. And the openings are not interchangeable. The Retro Toggle requires a 12 mm round opening while the knurled range uses the standard American rectangular cutout, and a rotary opening cannot be converted into a toggle opening after the fact. That is the same constraint the British system pushes onto the plate instead of the unit, and it is why both makers ask you to decide the combination before the metal is cut. The knurled versus Retro Toggle comparison is the full account.

Finishes, side by side

Two notes on the Studio Timeless column. Every finish sits on a solid brass body, including Matte Black, Matte White and Stainless Steel; the finish is a surface treatment, not a different metal, and the Copper Development Association is the reference for how copper alloys take and hold those treatments. And Hammered Brass exists only on the knurled toggles and knurled rotary dimmers, so a wall that mixes a Hammered Brass switch with an outlet beside it will not match. The full account, finish by finish, is in brass light switch finishes compared, and the living finish has its own article: unlacquered brass over time.

Dimming, and the three rules that do not move

Forbes & Lomax publishes several dimmer families on its United States technical page: a 120W LED and 300W incandescent unit, a 500W incandescent and halogen unit, a 600VA magnetic low voltage unit, and a 0-10V control. Studio Timeless offers a forward-phase TRIAC rotary dimmer from 1 to 5 gang, a 0-10V rotary controller and a 12-24V PWM knob for strip and driver-side dimming.

Three rules apply to a Studio Timeless installation regardless of which brand you compare it against, and they are the ones that cause returns when they are ignored.

First, one TRIAC dimmer per circuit. If a second location needs to control the same lights, that second position is a 3-way toggle, not a second dimmer. Second, a 0-10V control never interrupts the 120V supply, so it always needs a separate switch alongside it, and it cannot be mixed with TRIAC dimming on the same fixture. Third, a fan motor is never connected to a lighting dimmer; that is what the fan speed control is for, and NEC 404.14(E) is the reason. ELV and trailing-edge fixtures are also incompatible with forward-phase TRIAC dimming, whoever makes the knob.

On low-load flicker, the order of remedies is always the same: increase the load first, then choose drivers with a genuinely low minimum load, and only then accept that the circuit wants a toggle rather than a dimmer. The rotary dimmer guide has the detail. We do not recommend the Lutron LUT-MLC capacitor with Studio Timeless TRIAC dimmers.

Outlets, inserts and the American face problem

Both makers offer outlets, and both run into the same American constraint: the receptacle face is a moulded plastic part in a standard colour, and no amount of brass around it changes that. Studio Timeless offers three accent treatments, Matching, Brass Accents and Stainless Accents, but there is no brass insert, and we would rather say it here than have it arrive as a surprise. The outlets comparison sets out duplex, GFCI and USB-C side by side, and where code requires GFCI protection is a separate article.

If you are keeping a third-party device and only want the brass face, that is a plate purchase rather than a unit purchase: the wall plates collection and the combination plates exist for exactly that case, and it is the one situation where the Studio Timeless catalogue behaves like the British plate-over-mechanism model.

Price, and how to compare it honestly

We publish our prices and we will not guess at anyone else's. Forbes & Lomax sells through showrooms and dealers, where a price depends on the plate, the finish, the number of positions and the mechanisms chosen, so any figure quoted here would be invented. Ask for a quotation on your actual configuration.

What we can give you is our own list, per position, so you have a fixed reference point for that quotation.

Read the per-position number rather than the headline. A 4-gang knurled toggle at $237 is under $60 a position, which is the figure that matters when you are costing a house rather than a hallway. Trade specifiers can apply for account terms through the trade program.

Lead times, returns and what happens after the order

Both catalogues are made to order in large part, and neither should be treated as a same-week purchase. We do not publish a shipping promise, because the build time depends on the finish and the configuration, and a number we cannot hold is worse than no number.

Two Studio Timeless specifics you should know before ordering. Unlacquered Antique Brass is oxidised by hand, which adds several business days to the build, and it is not returnable. And lot-to-lot variation is real on hand-brushed work: expect around ten percent on the lacquered finishes and up to thirty percent on unlacquered. If you are committing a whole house, order the finish sample set first; it is $50 and the amount is credited against your first order.

On replacement, the single-piece design has one clear advantage and one clear cost. The advantage is that a worn lever is a module, not a whole plate: the knurled toggle replacement is $39, and the replacement parts collection exists so a wall installed today is still serviceable in a decade. The cost is that a change of plate style means a new unit, where the British system would let you keep the mechanism.

The two ranges, point by point

Which one for which project

Where each is the right answer, and where it is not

Forbes & Lomax is the right answer when the plate is the design idea. If the brief is a switch that vanishes into a hand-papered wall, or a painted plate matched to the joinery, or a plate the owner may want to change in ten years while keeping the mechanism, the British system was built for that and does it better than we do. It is the wrong answer when the site has one crew, the boxes are already in and sitting proud, and nobody is coming back after the decorator.

Studio Timeless is the right answer when the wall is being specified as hardware: solid brass on a drawing, priced per position, installed once, with a lever you can order as a module a decade later. It is the wrong answer when the design calls for a switch that disappears, when a nickel silver or matte brass finish is non-negotiable, or when every single device on the project must carry a North American listing mark, because our Retro Toggle range does not.

Both of those paragraphs are meant to be usable by someone who ends up buying from the other company. That is deliberate. A comparison that only ever concludes in its own favour is not worth reading.

Code and safety notes that apply either way

Whichever range you specify, the American rules do not change. Kill the breaker, verify the absence of voltage at the conductors with a tester you trust, then prove the tester on a known live circuit and check again; OSHA 1910.333 is the principle. A non-contact pen tells you a conductor is live, not that it is dead.

Box setback and edge clearance are code, not preference: NEC 314.20 caps the setback at 1/4 inch in a non-combustible surface, and 314.21 caps the gap at 1/8 inch. Listed equipment must be installed according to its listing under NEC 110.3(B). Your local code and your authority having jurisdiction decide what is acceptable, and local amendments are common.

A licensed electrician and, in most jurisdictions, a permit are required for new cable, a new box, a new circuit, any panel work, and any house wired in knob-and-tube or aluminium branch conductors. Stop and get help if you find scorching or a burnt smell at a device, a box filled past its limit, crumbling insulation, or no equipment ground. We do not confirm a wiring compatibility without written confirmation from the equipment manufacturer; when in doubt, start at the installation and compatibility page and write to us through contact.

Frequently asked questions

Where are Forbes and Lomax switches made?

In the United Kingdom. The company states that all of its manufacturing is in the UK, and it operates showrooms in London, New York and West Hollywood.

Who founded Forbes and Lomax?

Serena Herbert, an interior designer, over 35 years ago, after finding no elegant switch available for her own projects.

What is the Invisible Lightswitch?

It is Forbes & Lomax's signature plate, designed to disappear against its background, with versions made to work with wallpaper, fabric wallcovering and specialist paint effects.

Are Forbes and Lomax switches suitable for the United States?

The company publishes a United States range and United States technical documentation, with a toggle rated 120/277VAC at 15A and stated conformance to UL 20 and CSA C22.2 No. 111. The practical condition to check is the wall box: the instructions call for it to be recessed at least 4 mm below the wall surface.

What is the main difference between Forbes and Lomax and Studio Timeless?

Construction. Forbes & Lomax mounts a separate wallplate over a mechanism on a fixing ring. Studio Timeless builds the brass face and the device as one single-piece unit.

Is Studio Timeless a Forbes and Lomax alternative?

For a solid brass switch installed in an American box in one operation, yes. For a switch that visually disappears into the wall, no; there is no Studio Timeless equivalent to the Invisible plate.

Is a British two-way switch the same as an American 3-way?

Yes. The same circuit, controlled from two locations, is called two-way in Britain and 3-way in the United States. British and American four-way are not equivalent, so count locations rather than trusting the label.

Are Studio Timeless switches UL listed?

It depends on the product, and we publish it per product. The brass fan speed control is 120VAC, 60Hz and UL Listed. The Retro Toggle range is CE marked and is not UL or ETL listed.

Can I use a British switch plate on an American wall box?

Only if the box depth and setback suit it. The published requirement is a recess of at least 4 mm below the wall surface, while NEC 314.20 allows a maximum setback of 1/4 inch. That leaves a narrow window, and an existing box sitting proud of the finished wall will need resetting.

How many gangs can I get?

Forbes & Lomax publishes 1 to 6 gang as standard with larger plates on request. Studio Timeless ships 1 to 4 gang toggles and 1 to 5 gang rotary dimmers, with larger and mixed plates through the configurator up to twenty positions.

Which is more expensive?

We cannot answer that honestly, because Forbes & Lomax prices are quoted per configuration through showrooms and dealers rather than published. Our own list prices are above, per gang, so you have a fixed reference for the comparison.

Can I mix a dimmer and a toggle on one plate?

Both makers allow it, and both require the combination to be decided before the plate is made. On a Studio Timeless plate a rotary opening cannot be converted into a toggle opening later, the Retro Toggle needs a 12 mm round opening, and fixings are two screws per gang.

Which to specify

If the plate is the design, specify the British range and give it the wall, the recess and the decorator it needs. If the hardware is the design, specify a solid brass unit that arrives finished, goes on in one operation and can be serviced as modules years later. The mistake is not choosing the other one; it is choosing either without looking at the box first.

Last updated: September 27, 2026