The famous UK military watch manufacturer Bremont recently held a release party at the world renowned science museum in London. The release was for their new limited edition piece the Wright Brothers 1903. Following on from last year’s special the code breaker, this year’s was to be a first for the company and was to be totally unique in more ways than one. Until they got there PR wrong. I am sure most of you have read or seen write ups on the internet referencing the press release about their new ‘in-house ‘movement and others interpretations of the release. I will not focus too much as to whether they had a PR disaster or not , but I personally think they got the wording of the release wrong.
This IS a unique movement to Bremont in collaboration with Swiss La Joux-Perret. A workhorse movement, the BWC/01 automatic has about 50 hours of power reserve. I personally hope this is the first step in the long road that is a total ‘in-house’ Bremont movement. But enough of the argument about in-house movement or not because personally I don’t care as this is one pretty piece with a stunning history behind it. The watch is built with part of the holy grail of aviation icons; the machine that began manned flight. It was in 1903 that the Ohio-born Wilbur and Orville Wright brothers succeeded in flying the Wright Flyer during the world’s first powered flight.
Bremont contacted the descendants of the Wright brothers to see if they could use or purchase some of the original cloth used too cover the wings of first flight. They managed to acquire a small piece of the cloth and so set about in collaboration with the Wright family in making a watch worthy of the Wright brothers name. This piece is definitely worthy.
The Bremont Wright brothers special features a 42mm case which comes in 3 different materials stainless steel, rose gold and white gold. My favorite being the stainless steel.
The dial is a throw back to days gone by. It has a large plain uncluttered dial with a small second dial at the 9pm position with a metallic effect that makes your eyes jump to it with just a small 1903 in reference to its history. The main dial is dark blue, almost black or off white and very plain with automatic London written on it. This helps in keeping with the vintage feel.
Turn the piece over and there is an exhibition case back to reveal the great movement. The rotor is shaped like a plane propeller with a small window in the middle to showcase the the small piece of cloth that is in every one of these limited pieces.
Conclusion
Yes they got it slightly wrong and will learn from their mistake and that we watch nerds will notice everything, but do they warrant some of the abuse and bad blog/website reviews? NO.
Is it a good piece with superb heritage? I like it but my only criticism is that it is too small!! Most of the pilot watches, especially old pieces, were larger so the pilots could see the time at a glance. I would have liked to see the case at least 45mm if not 48mm but that is my only niggles.
Article by John Galt for WatchReport.com
