Bremont and the aerospace giant Rolls-Royce have joined forces to create a smartphone app for pilots that will provide pre-flight checklists, timing functions and many other aids to efficiency and safety in the cockpit of modern aircraft.
The app, which could be used by both amateur and professional pilots, will communicate via Bluetooth to a new ionBird watch strap from Bremont that informs the pilot when certain timing features required ahead of a flight are reached.
“With a hugely demanding record profile to fly, where time management will be critical, an unmistakable tap on the wrist from the Bremont ionBird strap will be vital,” the watchmaker says.
ionBird is also the name of a new watch, launching today, that is part of Bremont becoming official timing partner for a world record attempt by Rolls Royce to beat the airspeed record in an electric-powered plane.
Rolls Royce wants to provide a pathway to carbon-neutral flight through the creation of a zero-emission, all-electric, aircraft called the Spirit of Innovation.
It expects to comfortably beat the current world record of 213mph and expects to reach speeds of over 300mph early next year.
Bremont has been involved in the design of the plane’s cockpit, which will feature a Bremont stopwatch, and the company has machined canopy release parts from its Henley-on-Thames manufacturing facility.
The British watchmaker has also unveiled the ionBird chronometer, which test pilots will be wearing during development and record-breaking flights.
The ionBird comes in a 43mm aviation grade titanium case housing a BE-93-2AV chronometer-rated GMT movement that is cocooned in Bremont’s proprietary anti-shock technology. A dark brown dial is framed by a black bi-directional 24 hour bezel and the watch has a distinctive crown and crown guard at 4 o’clock that curves into the bottom right lug.
“Spirit of Innovation is not only history in the making but an example of pioneering innovation into sustainable power for aerospace. To champion this vision together with a British company that shares so many of the core values we do, and one which has personal ties to Rolls-Royce, has been very special indeed,” Phill O’Dell, Rolls-Royce Director of Flight Operations, says of the Bremont partnership.
There is no Rolls Royce branding on the timepiece, which goes on sale today for £4,495 on a leather strap or £4,894 on a bracelet.
