Tag Archives: Bronze Watch

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.

Beautiful Schofield

I have not posted for some time, there are a couple of reasons for this but it mainly because the pleasure of meeting the watch community in person is severely restricted. An e-mail from Giles Ellis of Schofield has jolted me into action, thank you Giles. We have to pick ourselves up after this epidemic and make the best of it.

I have always had a soft spot for the Schofield Bronze Beater, it always reminds me of my early visits to Salon QP. These distinctive British watches offering something very different to the Swiss mainstream. Then made from bronze which do my mind is the horological equivalent of selvedge denim.

This the latest “Japanese” edition is limited to 29 pieces is built is inspired by Giles Ellis’ love of that country, its people and their traditions.

The dial is the colour of Indigo dyed Boro, a unique patched and repaired workwear cloth. The British made case is heavily patinated bronze.The case back depicts Daruma-San a traditional Japanese doll. The
character on his chest means good luck and these dolls are often given as gifts prior to a challenge or task. The case back engraving
also shows a Tokyo drain cover design of ginkgo and cherry blossom.

The watch strap is Mudcloth, a tough canvas fixed with plant seeds and mud for six months to achieve this rich colour.

You will notice from the techenical specification below this Beater features an STP movement. To be completely honest I only looked at the specifications to see if thi “Japanese” edition also used a Japanese movement. I questioned Giles about this choice and he told me that all the Schofield Beaters are now transitioning to STP 1-11 movements from the ETA 2724.

So as we have come to expect from Schofield a beautifully presented watch with loads details to talk about. I look forward to being able to do that in person, hopefully soon. Stay safe everyone.

Technical

Movement STP 1-11, self-winding mechanical. Hours, minutes and hacking sweep seconds
Power reserve 44 hours
Diameter 25.6mm
Height 4.6mm with rotor
Jewels 26
Power reserve 44 hours
Frequency 28,800 VPH 4Hz
Case Bronze Patinated
Diameter 44mm
Crystal diameter 35.5mm
Height not including lugs 14.8mm
Width between lugs 24mm
Weight with strap and buckle 128 grams
Crystal Sapphire, AR coating
Case Back Heavily engraved Japanese design
Crown Double o-ring push in type with gold nail groove
Dials Split-level, painted, lacquered
Date None
Luminescence Super-LumiNova C3 green emission
Hands Brushed gold, Super-LumiNova C3 blue emission
Strap 24mm tapering to 22mm – Japanese Mudcloth pale face
Buckle Brushed steel
Box Ash and cedar
Serial Limited to 29 watches worldwide
Water resistance 200m
Warranty 2 years


Price is £3280 including VAT (UK / free shipping) or £2733 excluding VAT (US, Canada, Europe ROW + shipping)


Pinion Atom etc

After what seems a relatively quiet time in terms of news from Pinion, Piers Berry has made several announcements recently.

The most imminent being the availability of the “new entry point to the Pinion family” the Atom.

Pinion Atom

The Atom inherits all of the design and production qualities seen in the previous watches in the Pinion collection, but priced at £790 (£658.33 ex.VAT).

The Atom is sized at 41mm diameter, with a slim height of 11mm and is encased in 316L stainless steel with a bead-blasted finish.

The design of the dial follows the graphic code established by earlier models and presents typographic numerals in white, coated with SuperLuminova and contrasting radium colouring. The watch is water resistant to 100-metres.

Unlike all other Pinion watches, the Atom uses the Japanese automatic  calibre (Miyota 9015) which provides accurate timekeeping and a 42-hour power reserve. The reverse of the watch features a solid steel case back that is engraved with the Atom motif and individually numbered.

The Atom is built and tested in England. The watch is available from the Pinion website http://www.pinionwatches.com

Then coming later in the year will be a watch in a new material for Pinion; the TT their first watch in titanium which almost halves the weight of the case when compared to the steel models.

Pinion TT

Weight aside the TT has the familiar design elements of the Pinion range, as you can see on this prototype above. A brushed finish 42mm case with an exhibition back. Offering 10 atm (100 meters) water resistance.

The movement inside being an ETA 2893-2 with a 24 hour hand (second time zone /GMT). The first GMT from Pinion. I am really looking forward to see the final version.

Then this week came the very interesting announcement. Pinion will return to offering bronze watches. After launching the Pinion brand  in 2013 with bronze watches at the core of his range Piers judged that bronze was becoming too mainstream and decided not to offer them anymore. He has had a re-think, done a survey of friends and clients and decided to return to bronze in 2018 with a re-worked Axis II automatic. The interesting he will this time use a bronze, rather than steel, crown. This I remember being a point of discussion, personally originally thought a bronze crown was the the best fit, now after a year with my Pure bronze I am a big fan of the steel crown. I find it links visually very well with the hands and strap fittings. I will reserve final judgement until I have seen the new version.

2018 looks like another interesting year for Pinion.

 

Bronze Patina

More Bronze watches are now available and one of the first questions you might ask before committing to buying one is “how does the famous bronze patina develop” ?

As I took procession of my Pinion Pure Bronze the week before Christmas I thought it might be useful to post weekly updates.

New Bronze

New Bronze

Despite wearing the watch every day the colour change is very gradual.

After one week

After one week

I will try to make some better close-ups for next week.

 

Pinion Axis Pro Pure

 

Displaying Displaying Pinion Pro

The Axis Pro Pure collection from Pinion Watches is now complete, available in polished steel, marine bronze or DLC black this new non-limited run features a dial design with ‘professional’ styled applied batons, two-step bezel, anthracite sub seconds and radium or green luminova. Prices will start from £2,300 inc VAT .

If you get a chance try to get along to one of the Apex London meetings to see these great looking watches in the “metal”.

Bremont – Basel

This has been a pretty exciting week from a watch point of view given all the new watch announcements. One company worth a mention, despite them not being British, is Tudor. I am particularly taken by their Black Bay in bronze which I like to believe is following the lead of Pinion and Schofield in the use of this material.

Anyway moving onto the news in the title of this entry, Bremont and their new models. At the watch fair they announced no fewer than 10 new watches.

Four of which coming from their involvement in the Americas Cup and collaboration with Boing.

AC-R-SS-Front            OTUSA-R-BK-Front

On the left is the AC-R in steel and the right the OTUSA.

Bremont also have three new watches for women. Based on the 32mm case below.

SOLO-32-LC-Front

For all the news follow this link  2016 Releases

Pinion Axis II – range

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The latest newsletter from Pinion, that arrived this morning, announced that the Axis II range now consists of a choice of three cases, Steel, Bronze and Black DLC. Each being available either with a closed or exhibition back. One interesting “Pinion Fact”  is that emerged from reading about these watches was that the Bronze Axis was the first bronze watch from a modern British company.

For more news of the range follow this Axis link

I really looking forward to seeing this new range soon.

New Pinion Axis Bronze

I cannot believe I have not posted for 12 days! Sorry. I am also surprised that I have not mentioned the latest news from Pinion, their new Axis Bronze.

This latest bronze model is a fascinating alternative to the existing steel version.I personally think bronze is a great material for a watch given how the patina can develop over time.

The great appearance of this watch is not limited to the front, have a look at the caseback and the special green rotor.

Well done Piers !

 

Schofield

Today has proved to be a “Schofield Day”

First of all I found this great article describing the Schofield Beater, which in bronze is my favourite of their range.

Schofield-Beater-bronze-wrist-300x300

Salon QP – Schofield Beater

Then their regular newsletter arrived in my in box. These newsletters would be worth opening just for the quality of the photos like this one of a batch of Signalman’s awaiting dispatch.

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