Tag Archives: luxury watch

Excellent British Watchmakers’ Day 2025

I realise that Grinidgetime has been “off-air” for almost a year. As they say “it’s been complicated” anyway I now have more time to dedicate to the world of British watch brands.

To this end this weekend I attended my first British Watchmakers’ Day, I missed the first event last year due to bad calendar management. Anyway, I was there this year and as expected it is a really great event. The event is organised by the Alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers, so being a club member I had easy access to a ticket for morning slot of 10:00 to 12:00.

On entering the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hall I was met immediately with a long queue, which given the time I assumed was for coffee, nope, it was the line to buy the limited edition Fears/Studio Underdog Gimlet. Nicholas from Fears was working the waiting queue in his own personable way. The Gimlet was clearly the “main event” of the show.

My main purpose of attending this meet-up for me was to re-connect with the British watch people I knew so I didn’t approach it with the idea of highlighting all the great watches and all the brands that have been established recently. I also only had a two hour window.

So I worked my way around the show hoping to catch a few words, whilst not distracting the the people on the stand explaining and selling their wares. First stop, Pinion Watches, my company with who Grinidgetime effectively started. Piers was showing a nice range of watches including the special for the show, Neutron Violet SE, which I now read has sold out.

Leaving Pinion in peace I moved onto Schofield, another company I always consider one of the original British brands. Giles was also showing two special watches for the show, the B6 is a watch from the bottom of the sea. A limited edition in two colours, Deep Blue and Shallow Green,.

Then prompted by very positive comments from two friends I stopped by the Elliot Brown stand. Personally I had taken my eye of this company until two friends visited the stand last year and reported to me that they were the friendliest people present. Credit were credit is due, Ian from the company was indeed very personable, he went to great lengths to explain the impressive Holton Professional, the watch issued to the Royal Marines SBS.

Keeping with a military theme I passed by the busy Vertex stand, to say hi and see if there might be any chance of getting hold of a M100 in bronze. I get slightly distracted so did not get my hands on the M60 show special. I did however try on the M36 that I had not seen before, which as you can see from the image below looks great in this smaller 36mm case size.

Next up were my compatriots from Emsworth in Hampshire, Zero West. They have also brought a new watch series to the show, the S5e and S6e Spitfire Escape watch. Both in a new case design. The watches use steel from the engine of a special reconnaissance Spitfire.

II left the stand promising to visit the the studio in Hampshire.

I have a couple of other brands to mention but in the interest of time I will leave them to a follow up post.

Ronnie Wood

Photo : Henley Times

You might have noticed I am often a little sceptical about the various Bremont limited/special editions, they do get released pretty frequently. Considering this I am quiet taken by this limited series of 47 watches with dials hand painted by the legendary Rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood.

Obviously these watches are not very cheap, they are priced at £38,950 each. But to justify the effort of the afore mentioned rock god Bremont have also created watches with suitably high end components and materials.

The 42mm three piece Trip-Tik cases are made of 18 carat white gold.These house a special Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier movement is a modified calibre 11 1⁄2’’’ based on the DTE3022-31 with moon phase and fitted with a decorated rotor featuring Ronnie Wood’s signature. Each has 28 jewels, Glucydur balance and Anachron balance spring, with Nivaflex 1 mainspring and a rated frequency of 28,800 A/h with 46-hour minimum power reserve.

So ,if you are a Stones fan with a £38k burning a hole in your pocket take a look at the Bremont website. My personal favourite is the “Rock On Time” in the picture above.

Meerson Mutiny

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to  an event presenting the Meerson Mutiny watch, unfortunately as regularly happens a “day job” commitment meant I was unable to attend.

Meerson is special brand for for me. Firstly because it made me question whether I should count them as a British watch brand. Then because they were generous enough to lend me a watch for my first review, the black Altitude Officier. Finally, they are really nice people.

The purpose of the September ( well it seemed like a few weeks ago) event, was to show two additions to the Mutiny range for 2019.

 

2019 Mutiny

The first sports a leather lined, dark jean strap and a complimentary light blue dial. Light brown appliques and strap stitching, alongside the steel case completes the colour palette.

Mutiny 2019 “Surfside”

The second, nicknamed the ‘Surfside’, was orginally crafted as very special bespoke piece for a client. A keen kite-surfer and lover of all things aquatic, she wanted a watch that paid tribute to her life’s passion. The end result was stunning, a two tone dial that changes colour depending on the angle it is viewed at. The watch face glis- tens as it turns from Turquoise to deep purple, and back again. These shades extend from the dial on to the fabric strap.

Meerson watches are beautifully built and completely off most peoples radar, watches for people that enjoy fine objects –  subtly.

 

Schofield Six Pips Podcast

I have just dedicated two evenings to listening to the first and second episodes of the Schofield podcast – Six Pips.

Both episodes feature the “Principle Keeper” of Schofield watches, Giles Ellis in discussion with his colleague Harry.

The first episode covers at length Giles’ thought on design, at well over an hour it is pretty long but really fascinating, so much so that I immediately listened to the second episode the following evening.

In the second episode, which debatably should have been the first, Giles explains how and why he founded the Schofield watch company. Whilst doing so he gives great insight into what the brand is all about. We also gives some very useful pointers to anyone thinking of starting a watch company  thinking it is an easy way to make money ( a clue, it is not).

I always find, after listening to the personalities creating British watch brands, a great admiration for their passion. People like Giles really love what they are creating despite the numerous obstacles.

These podcasts are definitely worth listening to. Personally, I am really looking forward to the next episode.

 

Bremont 1918 – another point of view

You might remember in the past I have commented on Bremont’s heritage building. This is clearly done to increase the perceived value of their watches once they come to market.

After writing my last update on the launch of the 1918 limited editions I came across this video on Youtube. This American gentleman seems to have missed the point somewhere. He goes on about how outrageously expensive these watches are. In a way that suggests Bremont might be stealing food from orphans. Surely a company has a right to offer for sale a product of this nature at whatever price the think appropriate. It is for the market to decide if they are right or not.

If we see lots of these watches discounted in  a year or so we will know he was right.

Bremont 1918 Limited Editions

On October 4th, Bremont held a lavish event at the Imperial War museum to launch the 1918 limited edition three watch range commemorating the founding of the Royal Air Force one hundred years ago.

The 1918 Collection

 

All watches feature a Bremont decorated rotor featuring metal and wood veneer from four original RAF aircraft which flew in WWI and WWII. 43mm Stainless steel, white gold or rose gold Trip-Tick® case construction. Water resistant to 10 ATM, 100 metres. Alligator strap with pin buckle to complement case material. Limited to 275 pieces Steel and 75 in each gold.

Movement

Modified calibre 13 ¼’’’ BE-16AE automatic chronometer with 26 jewels, Glucydur balance and Anachron balance spring, with Nivaflex 1 mainspring. Rated frequency of 28,800 A/h with 42-hour minimum power reserve. Bremont decorated rotor featuring metal and wood veneer from 4 original RAF aircraft which flew in WWI and WWII.

Case

Stainless steel, white gold or rose gold in Bremont’s Trip-Tick® construction. Case diameter 43mm, height 17.2mm, lug width 22mm.

Caseback

Stainless steel, white gold or rose gold case back with integrated flat sapphire crystal, 5 stainless steel/white gold/rose gold screws with polished heads.

Dial

Opalin matt metal dial, applied indexes, solid gold/blued nickel hands with Super-LumiNova®.

As we have now come to expect from Bremont they have a great video explaining the association with the Royal Air Force.

A percentage of proceeds from the sale of the 1918 will go to the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA), which has supported current and former RAF personnel for almost 90 years.

My (o)Pinion

You might have noticed on instagram that I now have my own Pinion, An Axis Pure with a dark green dial, The green dial previously on the Gunmetal Green version of this watch.

My Pinion

My Pinion

My first impression when compared to my previous English watch, the Smiths Deluxe, was big and heavy. But clearly that is compared to a 1950’s 35mm steel watch. You might remember that I have been suggesting for some time that cases over 40mm were getting a little large for my taste.  Maybe I should re-consider this as my other regular wear is a Speedmaster Pro which is also 42mm.

With it’s 42mm case and wide (22 mm) strap the Pure is actually re-assuringly solid. The manual wound Unitas movement reinforces that sense of dependability.  The last feature making this the perfect weekend/holiday (and maybe Friday) watch for me is the 100m water resistance rating.

Finally, there is the bronze case. Pinion now feel this material is becoming too mainstream. Coming from the generation that appreciated how materials such as denim and leather become more personal with age I am very happy to have a watch that will do the same.

I will keep you updated on how the patina develops.

Christopher Ward – Teaser

 

https://vimeo.com/187628436

This is a teaser for the new C1 Malvern from Christopher Ward, as usual for a teaser it doesn’t give much away.

One detail though is pretty cool – the crown symbolising, “Swiss movement, English heart”

The official launch date is October 20th and examples will be shown to the public at the Salon QP.