Round-UpSky Is The Limit: Presenting The Bremont Altitude Collection
British watchmakers Bremont make flying easy with their Altitude collection, a series of serious aviation tool watches, some of which can survive being ejected out of an aircraft. From the Altitude family, here are the five best aviation series the brand have to offer
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In just over 20 years, Bremont have brought British watchmaking back into the fore alongside top Swiss watch brands. Bremont offer watches for the skies, seas and land, each crafted with a multi-piece case that offers robustness and strength. Bremont also bring a quintessentially British design ethos to their watches. Having recently re-engineered a Swiss calibre to create the ENG300 series, Bremont introduced these in-house movements as part of the H1 generation. The contemporary Fury timepiece, named after renowned aircraft from the 1930s and 40s, is part of the brand’s H1 generation of watches, and offers a 65-hour power reserve. Undoubtedly, aviation is an essential part of the brand’s DNA, and while this is evident in all their watches, this influence is most apparent in the brand’s Altitude collection.
High Flying Brit Grit: The Bremont Altitude Collection
Founders Nick and Giles English shared a love of flying with their father, an RAF pilot and aeronautical engineer. The brothers found the name for their brand when a flight across France was interrupted by bad weather, where they met French farmer Antoine Bremont, a former World War II pilot with an interest in vintage clocks.
Read about Bremont’s beginnings here
In 2007, Bremont partnered with Martin Baker, a British firm specialising in ejection seats. After rigorous testing, two years later, the MBI was created for pilots who had first-hand experience of these ejection seats. Subsequently, the Altitude MBII and Altitude MBIII collections were made available to all.
All of Bremont’s watches feature a trip-tick case structure with a multi-piece construction, which makes them hardy (note the specially treated ‘barrel’ on the case profile). A rubberised movement ‘mount’ protects the watch from shocks, and the movement itself is housed in a soft-iron Faraday cage that makes it resistant to magnetic fields. Bremont Altitude watches are certified chronometers, and are water-resistant to 100m, making them extremely wearable, even on an everyday basis.
Contemporary Classic: Altitude Airco
A contemporary take on a classic WWII pilot’s watch, the Altitude Airco collection was among the brand’s first three-handed pilot’s watches in a 40mm case. The collection was named after the Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited, one of the first British military aircraft suppliers. A red-tipped syringe minute hand and red arrow seconds hand stand out in the Airco Mach 1. Around the periphery of the dial is a ‘railroad’ minute track, with numerals marked in red for intervals of 10, and a red triangle at 12 o’clock. The Airco Mach 1 Jet timepiece features a black DLC treated steel case and a stealthy black dial to match. Besides this jet-brushed case, the red-tipped seconds hand sets the Mach 1 Jet apart from the Mach 1. The Mach 3 is dressier, with minimal text on its royal blue dial, and wedge indexes and leaf shaped hands.
Bremont U2-Blue
Named after an iconic spy aircraft, the 43mm Bremont U2-Blue features a knurled blue barrel, and crowns at two and four o’clock. The former sets the time, day and date, and winds the watch, while the latter adjusts the rotatable inner bezel. On a sunray-brushed metallic blue dial are numerals at 12, six and nine o’clock, and a day and date window at three. A red pointer tipped seconds hand, an inverted red triangle at 12 o’clock and ‘anti-shock’ in red are the only other colour pops in the otherwise blue, white and steel timepiece.
Past Forward: Bremont Fury
A classic pilot’s watch with futuristic cues, the Bremont Fury makes a powerful statement for the brand. As part of the brand’s H1 generation, the focus is on all that makes British watchmaking great—the name itself is a tribute to John Harrison’s marine chronometer, while also being a nod to the brand’s home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Housing the ENG365 calibre within, the Fury offers a power reserve of 65 hours, which is indicated via a sub-dial at six o’clock on the watch face. On the periphery of the grained royal blue metal dial is a smooth flange housing the minute track, with baton markers at cardinal points which correspond with Arabic numerals on the textured dial. A date window at three and power reserve indicator at six disrupt the harmony offered by lume-filled numerals. Contrasting textures and highlights in red stand out on the Bremont Fury.
High-Tech Pilot’s Chronograph: Altitude Alt1-C Griffon
The inspiration and namesake of the Bremont Altitude Alt1-C Griffon was perhaps the finest engine of the famous Spitfire aircraft used by the RAF during WWII. The 43mm case of the Alt1-C Griffon is made from hardened steel, with a scratch resistant DLC barrel, while an exhibition caseback allows for a view of the BE-50AE calibre housed within. This caseback is an upgrade from the Altitude Alt1-C, which was, in fact, the first ever watch designed by the founding brothers. The black dial of the Altitude Alt1-C Griffon features two sub-dials at three and nine o’clock, and a date window at six. A lollipop hand serves as the central chronograph hand, and timekeeping hands and indexes are marked with Super-LumiNova.
Bremont Special Edition Rose
To commemorate the brand’s partnership with England Rugby, Bremont released the Altitude Special Edition Rose timepiece. Embossed with the rose motif are two sub-dials at three o’clock and nine o’clock, while the date window remains at six. Under this window is the word ‘England’, unlike other Bremont timepieces which have ‘London’. On turning the watch over, the rotor is printed with the words ‘swing low’ as another nod to the team anthem.
Flying Around The World:Altitude ALT1-WT
The Altitude Alt1-WT is Bremont’s word-timer watch created in collaboration with crews on the US Airforce’s C-17 Globemaster, a strategic carrier aircraft used to deliver troops and cargo to bases across the world. The beauty of this timepiece is the rotating inner bezel which displays the names of cities that correspond with the 24 time zones against a white ring, and controlled via a crown at eight o’clock. The brand’s ‘Roto-click’ function makes adjusting this inner bezel easy (and a ton of fun). An angled view of the globe’s latitudes and longitudes are disrupted by three black sub-dials and a date window at three o’clock. Pops of yellow on the hands make this a really cool-looking timepiece.
Crown Jewels: Altitude Solo Lady K
The Lady K line within the Altitude Solo collection is named after a boat that the founder brothers’ father built for their mother. This is the English brothers’ tribute to their mother and her adventurous spirit. The 34mm case of the Altitude Solo Lady K features 60 white-cut diamonds on the bezel. Blue or white mother-of-pearl dials are decorated with eight diamonds as hour markers. This is the first time Bremont have used diamonds on the case and dial of their timepieces. Serif fonts at cardinal points—barring the rhombic date window at six—and leaf hands decorate the dial. Behind the gorgeous watch face is the automatic mechanical chronometer-certified calibre BE-92AV, which is visible through the exhibition caseback.
Everything the Bremont Altitude collection has to offer is characteristically British—their design ethos, collaborations with English brands, and tributes to England’s role to the resolution of the war. Clean, classic designs and contemporary treatment make the Altitude collection that much more special for the brand and for prospective buyers.