Tag Archives: Bremont

Pinion – Bronze Trend Leader

After seeing Pinion watches at Salon QP and a couple of Pinion “get togethers” I finally took the bait and ordered my Pinion Pure Bronze, which after I ordering Piers Berry, the founder, suggested I have the watch fitted with a green dial that until then had been mainly used in the gunmetal case. At the time there were very few watches available with bronze case and I was only aware of the fellow British brand Schofield, which I don’t remember being available with a green dial.

Pure Bronze

It is now 2023, this watch is my regular weekend/holiday watch. It is robust, has 100m water resistance, is a strap monster and has an appearance that improves with age.

Somewhat disappointingly its look is no longer as unique as in 2016. There is hardly a significant watch brand that does not have, or has not recently offered, a bronze model in their range and green appears to be the dial colour of the year. The obvious exception being Rolex. Both Tudor, Oris and now Christopher Ward notably going full bronze offering not only bronze cases but also bronze cases with bronze bracelets, which however much I personally like the material, I find a little too much. Of the major Swiss brands I am very tempted by the bronze Omega Seamaster 300 which nicely combines a retro look with a case that will patina.

However this is blog about British watch brands so what are the alternatives this side of the channel?

Bremont offer their British military approved Broadsword and Argonaut with a bronze cases

Bremont Argonaut
Bremont Broadsword

Christopher Ward,

On checking the Christopher Ward website I find three of their C65 range are available in bronze, the Dune, even with a bronze bracelet, the Acquataine and Sandhurst. The dive watch stalwart of the CW range, the C60, is also available though only with a blue dial.

C65 Dune on bronze bracelet

Schofield

As mentioned in my initial paragraph in my mind Schofield are the other original bronze watch producer and an updated version of their Bronze Beater, the B3 is still in the range. You can choose between a “raw” or “patinated” versions.

Beater – Raw
Beater – patinated

The patinated version looks great straight out the box, through in my mind one of the attractions of bronze is the development of a unique patina so given a choice I would probably go for the raw version.

Sadly, Pinion the pioneer of the sector, do not have a bronze case in their range, though this might be down to the company now specialising on smaller commissioned runs.

The good news though is that bronze cased watches are still cool and generally attract more attention than their steel equivalents. The even better news is the watches on offer from the British brands are at relatively affordable prices ranging from £985 for the Christopher Ward C60 to £3495 for the Bremont Argonaut. Not a huge amount to be distinctive. All of these watches can be found on their respective websites:

Bremont – https://www.bremont.com/products/bronze-argonaut-black

Christopher Ward – https://www.christopherward.com/

Schofield – https://schofieldwatchcompany.com/

Finally, lets recognise the Pinion Pure Bronze Green as being the watch that started the Bronze/Green trend.

Lots of British News

Well where do I start ? I have not been keeping up for sometime and a lot is going on. It used to be that I would see some news that I could report and now the world of British watches really frothing with news and not just with new brands popping up on Kickstarter actual exciting watches.

So to avoid any risk of favoritism I will treat these items in alphabetical order.

Bremont

Bremont have been working away somewhat separately from the rest of the British watch industry whilst investing heavily in their UK manufacturing facility in Henly-on-Thames. Last year this investment led to the launch of the ENG300 movement which was housed in the limited edition Longtitude which were available for between £15k and £22k which clearly minimised the impact a little. Clearly a company with the vision and ambition of Bremont would not go to the effort of developing a movement just for a limited run watch.

So this October saw the announcement of not one but three new ranges of watch. The Supernova, the Fury and the Audley. To my eye the Fury and Audley are very clearly the style of watch we have come to expect from Bremont. The Supernova offers something different a steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet.

Bremont Supernova

I am not sure the the Supernova brings something new to the watch market, from everything I have seen it will be a very nicely made piece in the spirit of the more well known models from Switzerland. What it does bring is a British alternative which in itself from my point of view is positive. On sale for £7,995 which is more expensive than the usual non-limited edition Bremonts, but looks good value when compared to the better known continental offerings.

Bremont Fury

The 40mm Fury, a re-interpretation of the classic pilots watch, again more expensive than we are used to from Bremont and other similarily styled watch, but again it features the Bremont made H1 certified movement. H1 being the new chronometer timing standard, directly comparable to the ISO3159:2009 Chronometer test.

Bremont Audley

The final watch in the series is the the classic dress watch, named after Bremonts showroom in Mayfair, London. Avilable in steel (£5,995) of rose gold (£14,995).

Christopher Ward

C1 Bel Canto

In my mind Christopher Ward are a company producing very well made watches at very reasonable prices. They have produced some pieces that cause you to look twice, such as the C60 Sapphire. This October they announced the C1Bel Canto, featuring a striking hour. This watch is already listed on the website as “sold out”. Now personally it is not a style of watch that I particularly like but what they produced for the price just seems spectacular value for money. As you can see from the images this is not a watch that will go un-noticed, especially when it starts to chime. I guess we will have to start looking out for them on the used market.

Fears

Brunswick 40
Brunswick 49 – bracelet detail

Fears have been super busy. Due to my lockdown induced laziness I have not really covered this year’s news from Fears very well apart from via Instagram posts which is a real shame as Nicholas Bowman Scargill has continued to bring some really interesting pieces to market. After the Garrick collaboration there was the the limited edition for the Californian watch retailer Topper. This watch featured a black or white californian dial and wait for it – a 40mm version of the now established Brunswick case. We then returned to the standard 38mm Brunswick case for the Royal Purple jubilee year celebration. The obvious question is; what else are Fears going to do with the 40mm case? So here we have it the Brunswick 40, a sportier Brunswick on a steel bracelet and with 100m water resistance. A possible “one watch”, sporty and elegant. This new watch is available with a Pink, Silver or Blue dial. The bracelet of course is not an “off the shelf” design and as a secret design “egg” the inside of the butterfly clasp features the “flower of Bristol” , honouring Fears’ home city.

The watches are priced at £3750 for more information go to the Fears website.

Bremont – New Movement

Last Wednesday week’s I was very disappointed, Bremont were having a major event at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, 850 metres away from my house and I didn’t get an invite. This was especially disapppointing because as well as the launch of Bremont’s latest limited edition watch, the Longtitude, it was the announcement of a new Bremont proprietary movement. Given all the fuss about “in-house, not in-house”, especially at Bremont this is potentially an important moment in the revival of the British watch industry.

The Longtitude

The Limited Edition Bremont Longitude, available in steel, white or rose gold, houses the brand’s first manufactured movement the new ENG300 movement.

Bremont has acquired the full rights to manufacture and
re-engineer the celebrated K1 calibre from the Swiss firm “THE+” and launches the ENG300 movement series. The machining base components and assembly will all be carried out in the new Bremont Manufacturing & Technology Centre “The Wing” based in Henley-on-Thames. Bremont has re-engineered 80% of the base calibre, including making a number of design improvements, in order to build a proprietary movement to their unique specification. After their contraversial claim in 2014, when they claimed total proprietorship over a movement that proved to have been created by La Joux-Perret this time Bremont have gone to great lengths to justify their defintition as “proprietary”. I have read that they have upgraded 80 percent of the movement in-house and that they are manufacturing 55 percent of the movement by weight in Henley (five parts in all – the base plate and four bridges). “By weight” seems an unusal measure, which you might gain further insight to by listening to the Scottish Watches podcast on the subjet. It will be very intersting to see how this is all taken by the watch world. The movement is rated to “Chronometer” standard, but not COSC certified, as this is reserved for Swiss made movements.

As you will see from the images above the Longditude does have the “dressy” look of previous special editions like the Victory or Wright Flyer. As with these earlier watches and also incorporates some material of “historical” interest, in this case original brass from the historic Flamsteed Meridian Line at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on the outer edge of the movement.

The other neat feature is the small power reserve indicator that mimics the Time Ball on the top of the Royal Observatory. The Time Ball was first used in 1833 and still operates today. Normally each day, at 12.55pm, the time ball rises half way up its mast. At 12.58pm it rises all the way to the top. At 1pm exactly, the ball falls.

You can find full details of the watches on Bremont’s website . The real story here though is the movement. I look forward to seeing how it develops. Let’s hope this really is the beginning of volume production of watch movements in Britain

Special Edition – Bremont

This post title as you might imagine is a little tongue in cheek. Bremont have made a name for themselves launching numerous collaborative special editions, such as HMS Victory, the Wright Brothers or most recently the H4.

Well this week the announced the opportunity for all of us to collaborate to create our own watch, based on the MBII.

The MBII is for me “the Bremont watch” in so far as it is a good, well designed, distinctve watch. The watch has been available in a variety of colour/strap variations for sometime.

You can now specify your own choice of colour for the case, barrel and dial with a display or solid case back – all at the following website https://www.bremont.com/pages/mybremontmb

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.

Surprise – Bremont Special Edition

The British watch world’s big event this week was the announcement of the latest Bremont limited edition the H-4 Hercules. Limited to just 300 stainless steel, 75 rose gold and 75 platinum pieces. Unfortunately my invitation to the launch event didn’t get to me, however Bremont’s excellent video below tells the story.

The Story

All the watches use the 25 jewel Bremont BWC/02 movement based on the original proprietary automatic BWC/01 calibre built in partnership with movement house, La Joux Perret, and is housed in a 43mm case. Prices range from £9495 for the steel version to £24995 for platinum.

Bremont Factory Visit

Nope, I wasn’t me. I saw this article today on the Gear Patrol website and I thought this would be an easy re-introduction to posting – sorry I have been a little lazy lately.

Anyway this is an interesting look at the Bremont headquarters.

https://gearpatrol.com/2019/09/23/bremont-watches-manufacture-visit/

Military Rivals

First of all apologies for my “radio silence” over the summer. No excuse really other than the usual “non-watch” commitments in the real world.

Starting anything again after a little time can often be a little daunting, there are always reasons to put it off again. Well today I re-started two activities I have been putting off. Firstly,I have just returned from my first motorcycle ride for a couple of years, just a couple of miles around my area but satisfying feeling my intuitive operation of the controls returning.

So now here I am back at Grinidgetime, my return to the keyboard prompted by several announcements of new watches from the British value brand Christopher Ward. My particular attention was caught by three watches in particular, produced apparently with the approval of the UK Ministry of Defence. There is a watch for each of the three arms of the British military, Army, Navy and Air Force. A remarkably similar initiative to Bremont’s Armed Forces collection launched earlier this year.

Taking the watches one by one I will start with the Sandhurst, named after the Royal Military of the same name. The watch follows the now almost generic design of the Smiths W10. This modern re-interpretation comes in a 38mm brushed steel case with a rugged and precise Swiss-made automatic movement – a chronometer-certified version of the Sellita SW200-1. Usefully, this watch has a 150m depth rating.

It is very difficult not to compare this watch to the Bremont Broadsword. Both watches offer C.O.S.C certified movements. The Bremont is slightly larger at 40mm with a lower depth rating of 100m. The big difference being the price,The Sandhurst is offered at between £795 to £895 depending on which strap option you choose. The Bremont Broadsword £2595.

The next service to cover is the Royal Navy, here Christopher Ward offer the C65 Dartmouth, named after the famous naval officers training academy. The design is inspired by the Omega Seamaster 300 ‘Big Triangle’ – initially known as the Royal Navy 0552, a Ministry of Defence commissioned piece that saw the first appearance of the popular inverted triangle. The Dartmouth uses a 41mm brushed steel case and the same Sellita movement as the Sandhurst, the watch is also rated at 150m.

For people looking for a Royal Navy watch the Christopher Ward offer differs significantly from the equivalent Bremont Argonaut. The Bremont having a slightly larger case (42mm) and higher depth rating of 300m. Again though there is a significant price difference. The Dartmouth at £795/895 compared to the Argonaut at £2795.

Then we get to the youngest of the three services, the Royal Air Force. This watch is called the Cranwell, named after the famous training college, it finds inspiration in two of the most definitive pilot’s watches ever made: the ‘6B/346’ models produced by Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC. Again the movement is same Sellita as the other two housed in a 41mm steel “light-catcher case.

For Royal Air Force fans Bremont have their mono-pusher model, The Arrow; again at a significantly higher cost £3595 against £795/895.

This collection of military watches from Christopher Ward clearly offers an alternative to watch buyers wanting to show their support of one on Britain’s armed forces. The advantage being the cost and the use of the single arms insignia on th ecase back. The Bremont range with the Argonaut and Arrow do offer more features but at a price.

Oster Watches – Podcast

In the absence of review watches I recently dedicated a little time to watch podcasts. Many of these tend to be american which despite often promising interesting content end up irritating me, so it was pleasantly surprised when I came across an interview with Mike Pearson, who recently returned to Bremont in the US.

https://osterjewelers.libsyn.com/keeping-time-s-3-e-02-michael-pearson-the-return-to-bremont

The podcast in question is “Keeping Time” by Oster Watches, an independent jeweller from Denver, Colorado. I briefly met Mike at the first Bremont Townhouse event and enjoyed a short chat about the merits of bronze watches, so I understood he is an enthusiastic talker. During the podcast he gives a little of the insider’s view of Bremont and the enthusiasm of the founders Nick and Giles.

I really enjoyed the chatty style of this interview and it helped counter some of my Bremont cynicism.

ISO 3159 – Kew A

You might have noticed that Bremont’s latest trio of watches developed together with Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, The Broadsword, Arrow and Argonaut are chronometers, certified to ISO 3159 standard, not C.O.S.C. . Which I found very refreshing.

To my mind this has been a subtle way for the Swiss to maintain the perception of the superiority of their watch industry. Several British brands using Swiss movements are highlighting this certification, which I have always thought detracts a little from their British-ness, not in a negative way only in the way that we acknowledge the Swiss as the watch “authority”. 

The term “chronometer” means that a watch has been certified to have a certain accuracy per day and is tested in a few different positions at a few different temperatures. While individual corporate and national chronometry certifications differ in details, the ISO 3159 is the baseline recognized by the 163 international members of the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization. ISO 3159:2009, the latest version, last was reviewed in 2015, and is described as follows:

Chart from govbergwatches.com

The C.O.S.C. standard as you might have suspected is slightly more rigorous. Current standards for the COSC certificate entail passing the above evaluations while deviating by no more than -4/+6 seconds per 24 hours; achieving a mean variation in rates of two seconds; a maximum variation in rates not exceeding five seconds, a greatest variation (i.e. greatest individual positional deviation from the mean) in rates not exceeding 10 seconds, and thermally-induced deviation not to exceed +/-(.6) seconds. Additional conditions apply, but these are the principle guiding measures that underpin COSC certification.

Historically though there was a more rigorous standard, and it was from Britain., Kew “A” Certification. Watches tested at the Kew Observatory were given more strenuous testing and held to a higher standard than at the others as the Kew Observatory (a subsidiary of the Greenwich Observatory) was responsible for certifying marine chronometers before they were issued to the Royal Navy. While a standard Swiss chronometer test would last 15 days, the Kew test lasted 44 days. Any watch certified as an “A” chronometer from the Kew Observatory was known to be extremely accurate and robust in all positions in a wide range of temperatures.

So well done Bremont for not falling back on C.O.S.C. But, how cool would a British watch with Kew “A” certification be ?