As children, Giles and Nick English were often told to run along and play with an old clock, so it’s not surprising the brothers turned into watchmakers in their adulthood.
Ronnie Wood called. He had seen a Bremont marine clock and offered to paint some dials
All the passions they inherited from their “adventurous” engineer father – classic cars, old fighter planes, watches and clocks – have shaped Bremont, the watchmaking business they launched in 2007.
Nick and his father, a former RAF pilot, were practising for an air display on a North American Howard in 1995 when they crashed. Nick suffered more than 30 broken bones but his father didn’t survive.
On Nick’s recovery, the brothers, then involved in a business restoring old aircraft, decided to dedicate their time to making things they loved.
“We believed we could go on to make some nice watches,” Giles English told The Sunday Times. “We had some good contacts in Switzerland. The history of British watchmaking is so great.
“Rolex was founded in the UK where all the great watch inventors came from. Think of Greenwich Mean Time and John Harrison who invented the marine clock. Sadly, there were no British watch brands, so we believed that, in itself, would be our differentiator.
“We were after creating watches in a very traditional English style. Bremont is the only watch you can buy with London on the dial.”
The English ‘brief’ acquired a French name. Flying over France some years after their father’s death, the brothers were forced into an emergency landing in a field. The farmer, a Monsieur Bremont, put them up until the weather improved and it turned out he had an enormous collection of old clocks and timepieces.
Bremont’s own mission as a boutique luxury watch brand is to communicate a sense of curious interest, with plenty of anecdotes to tell. Besides, high-end watches, Mr English stressed, have to last forever.
Mr English says the company was quite lucky to have some adventurers wearing Bremont and putting them to the test. Mountaineer and author Bear Grylls, actor and Paris Dakar biker Charley Boorman (Ewan McGregor’s best friend), Olympic skier Graham Bell, and free diver Sara Campbell all wear Bremont as their watch of choice.
Their feedback has been invaluable in leading the company to perfect their watches further.
Some Bremont models are tested in collaboration with Martin Baker, maker of 70 per cent of the world’s ejection seats, on live ejections. The watch’s mechanical movement sits in a rubberised vibration mount and it is protected against anti-magnetic forces.
Steel cases are finished by English manufacturers of turbine blades destined for jet engines so every Bremont watch case is nine times harder than the average steel watch – 2,000 vickers to be exact.
Bremont’s target market is very specific: men aged 30 to 55 who have achieved their goals. Most would probably already own a collection of statement watches. Bremont is designed as a non-aspirational purchase of subtlety, elegance, and personality. It is the watch the person alongside would ask about.
The brand positioning strategy has been successful. Actors Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, Hugh Laurie, and Taylor Lautner wear Bremont, and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and rugby player Chris Custier are fans. Bremont features celebrities on its website and Facebook page but not in its campaign, which is very select and strictly English in style.
The company continues to catch the right people’s attention. It has won Watch Brand of the Year in the UK Jewellery Awards this year, after being named Best Emerging British Luxury Brand by Walpole in 2008.
Mr English explained Bremont only eyed a small percentage of the UK’s £700 million (€800m) watch market, one of two key markets together with the US. Bremont also retails in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Bremont officially came to Malta last weekend – where it is represented by Vascas – as a sponsor of the Mdina Grand Prix, the classic car event. The winner was presented with a Bremont.
Mr English admitted he was not a trained marketeer but an adventurous engineer like his father.
“We started the business two years before the recession,” he recalled. “Europe was a bit of a dilemma for us but I’ve learnt that although the market’s prospect might not be very good, we are taking the market share. We only need the right partners to work with.
“In the US, we hire our own sales team and deal directly with retailers rather than through distributors like most other brands. That way, we can control the brand. It means Bremont will grow slower in that region but we like to do things properly and for the long-term.
“Nick and I enjoy old cars and flying. We are ourselves. Our customers relate to our passion through the brand.”
Bremont gets noticed among the luxury watch brands, particularly by the stories it has to tell. The company is branding a collection of watches for 25 US military squadrons which Mr English describes as the perfect marketing opportunity.
The core Bremont collection of 30 watches across six ranges is bolstered every two years or so with a limited edition.
In 2008, the company launched the ‘EP120’ containing parts of the 1942 Spitfire Mk V, possibly the most credited World War II fighter in existence. The edition immediately sold out and watches are currently reselling to collectors for £12,000 (€13,675).
One EP120 owner, a billionaire with a large collection of antique aircraft, got in touch last year saying he had just restored his 1944 Mustang P-51K-10, the only surviving Mustang from the Battle of the Pacific. There was some aluminium from the tail plate. Would Bremont like to have it?
The tail plate pieces were built into 251 chronograph chronometers named P-51 and inspired by the Mustang’s original clock.
Bremont recently dedicated two years to building a marine clock earmarked for super-yachts. Fully waterproof and gold-plated, Mr English said it was one of the most complicated clocks ever built.
Three months ago, Ronnie Wood’s management called. The Rolling Stones guitarist, who is also an artist, had seen one and offered to paint some dials for the clock.
“As you get older, you want to work with nice people,” Mr English said.
“I love the creative part. I am an engineer geek at heart, but Nick and I meet some amazing people.
“It is exhausting because we are a manufacturing company and you have to be good at the marketing too. Nick now looks after the US, and I generally do Asia, and the parts in between we share.
“It was a great excuse for me to come to Malta. The family once had a property in Gozo and I would like to return.”