Bremont’s co-founders Nick and Giles English have dreamed of bringing watch manufacturing back to the United Kingdom since well before the company was created almost 20 years’ ago.
Now the dream is one step nearer to reality with the opening of the Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centere, described as a state-of-the-art facility for manufacturing mechanical watches.
The manufacture, according to the brothers, “Provides the perfect foundation for the future growth of Bremont enabling us to manufacture more components here in the UK and cement our global position as a luxury watch manufacturer”.
It is hard to overstate the significance of the Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centre to British watchmaking.
With the exception of Garrick, Struthers and Roger W Smith, which hand craft tiny numbers of exceptional watches every year, manufacturing has all-but disappeared from British shores 50 years’ ago.
Successful companies like Christopher Ward are headquartered in the UK, but manufacture around 30,000 watches per year in Switzerland.
Bremont always wanted to be different, bringing industrial scale watchmaking back to their home country.
“At the start of Bremont all those years ago, we aimed to be more than just a marketing company outsourcing the watch manufacturing overseas, and we knew it would be a massive challenge. Bremont’s mission statement remains the same: To make exquisitely engineered mechanical timepieces on British soil with the lofty objective of reinvigorating the nation’s horological past, using our adventurous spirit, passion for detail, desire to innovate and dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction,” the English brothers insist.
Bremont has made its own cases and other components in the UK for a number of years, and also assembled its watches on home soil.
The new center brings all of that capability under one roof, and is also expected to be the site for producing Bremont’s first in house movement, which has been spoken about for a number of years and had previously been slated to launch in highly limited edition watches in 2020.
Bremont and Williams Racing Formula 1 team
Today’s reveal of its integrated HQ was accompanied with news that Bremont has become the Official Timing Partner to Formula 1’s Williams Racing.
The partnership is described as the coming together of two British engineering businesses.
“The links between our two industries are considerable and as Official Timing Partner our relationship will be beneficial on many levels,” says Giles English. “Over the years we have seen a substantial crossover between the manufacturing skills in F1 and watchmaking, we have employed several individuals from the F1 industry to date. Complex machining to very high tolerances requires a significant investment in machinery and technical skill set, any extra support from the Williams technical team will undoubtedly be hugely valuable to our business. We’re excited to be working with such a renowned British technology business and look forward to seeing where we can take the partnership.”
