Bremont’s chief executive Davide Cerrato made a surprise visit to Saturday’s British Watchmakers’ Day, which was organised by the Alliance of British Clock and Watchmakers.
Surprising because, until now, Bremont had chosen not to be part of the Alliance and has very much focused its energy on exhibiting at Watches and Wonders in Geneva this spring over a one-day event in London.
It is regrettable that the founders of the Alliance and Bremont’s former owners and founders, Nick and Giles English, have not seen the need to support each other since the trade body was launched in 2020.
That is expected to change after Mr Cerrato toured the British Watchmakers’ Day show and met with the Alliance’s backers including Mike France, managing director of Christopher Ward (pictured top, with thanks to GMZ Pics).
The irony of Bremont contemplating joining the Alliance now will not have escaped industry insiders who tell WatchPro that Bremont’s mission to bring industrial scale watch manufacturing to Britain is under review and likely to be scaled-back.
Mr Cerrato is on the record saying he wants Bremont to lower its average selling price. He needs to do this at the same time as making the company consistently profitable, and that is likely to mean concentrating on running a global business out of the UK, but continuing to outsource much of its manufacturing.
