Two brothers… a malfunctioning 1930s biplane… a forced landing in a field somewhere in France… help from a farmer who, as a former wartime flying ace, shared the brothers’ passion for aviation…and the story of Bremont – an award-winning British company producing beautifully engineered timepieces – had begun.
Born from adversity
While it was the French farmer, Antoine Bremont, who provided the inspiration for the company name, founders Nick and Giles English had already inherited a lifelong love of clocks and watches from their father who, as an ex-RAF pilot with a PHD in Aeronautical Engineering, encouraged them to tinker with mechanical timepieces.
Tragically, in the mid-1990s, an air display accident cost their father his life and Nick only just survived. But this tragedy for the brothers persuaded them to follow their passion and build a company dedicated to crafting the ultimate in watches.
In 2002, Bremont began its quest to make high quality pilot’s watches built on the values of British engineering, aviation and the military, and the spirit of adventure. And the company now produces a range of exquisite but highly durable watches equally at home in the cockpit of an RAF Typhoon or a Jaguar F-PACE. Take the Bremont MB collection named after Martin-Baker, provider of fighter ejection seat technology to the world’s air forces. Only pilots who have ejected from an aircraft in a Martin-Baker seat get to wear the Bremont MBI but the good news is, a Bremont MBII or an MBIII are available to all.
Going solo
Other watches in the Bremont hangar include the ALT1-C which combines the “art of watch making with the very best of technical innovation, precision and durability”. For a watch inspired by the classic pilot watches from the 1940s, there is the Bremont SOLO range which features the classic Bremont Trip-Tick® case, hardened in the UK to over 2000Hv on the Vickers’ scale and is over seven times more scratch resistant than typical watch-grade steel.
Luke who serves as the Bremont ambassador at Cheltenham jeweller Martin & Co believes it’s the unique nature of a Bremont watch that sets them apart: “The Bremont brand is a celebration of all things British and exemplifies our country’s watch making heritage. To own a Bremont is something very special and will look and work brilliantly in the boardroom or on the top of Mount Everest."
