British aviation watch sensation, Bremont, has announced that it will be hosting a night for British watch retailers at this year’s Baselworld.
The brand has chosen the hugely popular Fish Inn pub across the road from Hall 1 of the exhibition, colloquially and affectionately known as ‘the Pickwick’ or the ‘British Embassy’ by the Brits who have been frequenting its doors for decades.
“It’s not a natural luxury location for displaying watches but it has become the bastion of British drinking throughout the Basel watch fair and a relaxing place to unwind at the end of a busy day,” Giles English, Bremont’s co-founder, told WatchPro exclusively.
The move, which is sure to prove extremely popular among British retailers who make the annual pilgrimage to Basel, comes on the back of Bremont deciding against exhibiting at Baselworld this year, both for strategic reasons and also because ‘the Palace’ – where Bremont have exhibited since 2014 – has been withdrawn by Baselworld’s organisers.
“We have exhibited our new collections in the UK for this year [at the Bremont Townhouse event at the start of March] but we felt we couldn’t stay away from Basel entirely,” explained English. “We never pass up the opportunity for a drink with our retailers so we are pleased to be putting on this for them; this is more of a thank you than anything else.”
English sees this year as a key one for the brand, with plans announced to build a huge new headquarters in Henley-on-Thames to open in 2019 and a new strategic focus on North America and the UK as its two dominant territories.
He is naturally buoyed by the positive response to the brand’s aforementioned Townhouse week earlier this year, which attracted retailers and private customers from all over the UK and beyond.
“It was a fantastic event for us and we felt we connected far more with retailers than we ever have done before,” English enthused.
“We always keep our fingers crossed but we are quietly confident for our continued growth this year and very excited by our new releases. I just need Nick to work harder for once!”
Bremont will be sending out personal invitations to its retailers and a select number of others, who will be given wristbands outside ‘the Pickwick,’ which will entitle them to free wine and beer between 6pm and 9pm on Thursday 23rd March.
