I wouldn't speak about the member in question but I've always felt that a bit of astroturfing was going on with Bremont. Just a few too many cult like posters defending their every move.I'm almost sure that he and possibly some others on different forums were paid by Bremont to keep a clean image on internet forums.
They might all be genuine but I dunno, feels odd.
I always thought it the other way round.
I was amazed how much hate Bremont got here on TZ.
Especially, given that it this is a UK forum and Bremont was (until recently) a UK company hoping to make high quality watches here in the UK.
I didn't come across many (if any) people who have actually been round the Wing and not been relatively impressed by the capability and intent being shown there.
As I have said many times here, I found many of their releases (LEs particularly) not to my taste, but I was always ready to defend a lot of their work, because I thought (and still do) that it was good.
My Alt1-P is definitely on the "keeper" list, and although I owned an America's Cup (which I found disappointing for being very unhardened titanium, with poor lume) I will definitely keep looking for one of the other Supermarine 500 GMTs.
I am very disappointed in the current state of affairs at Bremont.
I would also be very curious to talk to one of the brothers about it.
I am sure they are very disappointed that many, if not all, of their stated ambitions for the company are to be scrapped
The only genuine negativity about Bremont was always targeted at their chosen marketing. The quality of the product was rarely challenged if at all, and while their pricing was ambitious the stated desire to make them in this country alleviated this issue in part. Indeed, many on this forum bought them, and quite a few have stated they will keep (some of) them.
I’ll gloss over the in-house fiasco, as they ate their humble pie yet took the necessary steps to make it good. It seems finances decided otherwise.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Sums it up for me. Never questioned the quality but found the marketing a complete turn off.Originally Posted by Saint-Just
Also wasn't that impressed when I went into the Mayfair boutique and saw some of the watches stuck on leather straps that were too narrow for the lugs. I'd expect attention to detail when paying a few thousand for a watch.
I saw similar in their Mayfair Boutique
The wrong bracelet on the wrong watch mounted back to front!
That took some effort!
Those reasons are mostly only your opinion and hardly based on facts. His initial answer was factual but he didn’t say what you wanted it to say so you took him to task. And if you read my post above you will see that I give the brothers the same credit as you do, but with my eyes opened.
And I only noticed you from the moment Bremont came to the market, and can’t remember you on C. Ward or other British brands like anOrdain.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Beaverbrooks Oxford
The same was at Beaverbrooks Bluewater. Didn’t get a picture as didn’t think anything of interest.
Beaverbrooks Oxford
Odd they also have a boutique store in Bluewater. No mention of sales or the new stock when I passed.
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Everywhere seems to have Bremont on sale. I'd hazard a guess they've been told to ditch the old stock ahead of the new range:
This looks rather good value for money.
https://www.goldsmiths.co.uk/Bremont...RoCZhoQAvD_BwE
If they'd kept the same design aesthetic, but dropped the prices to what they're on sale (Being jettisoned) for now this whole relaunch situation thing would have been a success.
Anyone who fancies dropping multiple £K on a Bremont at this current moment must be looking to get rid of some perfectly good cash, if so please PM me as I have some magical beans you may also be interested in.
Haven't looked today, but sale prices are so prevalent that a few days ago, WF had several models (used) for sale at higher than the new ones were from ADs............
They have certainly found out how to ruin the concept of premium on their watches.
This will never leave me..
But I am very disheartened to see what has happened at Bremont & the change that we are now seeing; very sad.
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Bremont may do a TagHeuer. And, in a few years time ask the family back for advice, before introducing the "heritage" range using the old logo and design cues.
The brand has a track record of generating it's own history.
Wishful thinking, if only...the turn of events is rather sad to read, whatever your views BREMONT achieved a huge amount.
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It’s like the guy from changing rooms had a face lift
Brilliant
David
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
Considering all he had to do was come up with a modern reinterpretation of a vintage diver, I can’t imagine ‘success’ at Tudor was all that difficult for him. In fact all the “creative alchemist” had to do was not make something seen as more desirable than a Rolex Sub. I can’t imagine success at Bremont will come as easy and I don’t think he has set off in the right direction at all.
Looks like message received, or at least they could have been clearer at the time when launching the new collections.
This just into my in box with a picture of an MB2 “… pilot watches, Bremont’s starting point, are some of our most treasured timepieces”
I'd noticed their latest mailshot didn't include any of the new watches.
All he had to do was make something that (from a distance) looked like a Bremont but was slab-sided and cheaper.
Costume jewellery. Ouch!!!
I am surprised he even has a reflection
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Gratuitous Mirror joke from the General Humour thread:
A blonde was speeding in a 25 mile per hour residental zone when a local police cruiser pulled her over.
The female police officer who walked up to the car also happened to be a blonde.
She asked for the blonde's driver's license.
The driver searched frantically in her purse for a while and finally said to the blonde policewoman, "What does a driver's license look like?'
Irritated, the blonde cop said, "Don't be a smartass!, it's got your picture on it!"
The blonde driver frantically searched her purse again and found a small, rectangular mirror down at the bottom.
She held it up to her face and said, "Aha! This must be my driver's license", then handed it to the blonde policewoman.
The blonde cop looked in the mirror, handed it back to the driver and said, "You're free to go.
And, if I had known you were a police officer too, we could have avoided all of this."
And the re-edited version for TZ-UK:
Davide was on the door welcoming VIP guest to the Bremont launch event.
A TZ member walks by and tries to gain entry (wearing an end of line Barbour jacket, oversize short legged jeans, and fake doc Martin Chelsea boots).
Davide asks to see the TZ members invitation.
The TZ-er searched frantically in their Magsafe wallet for a while and finally said to David, "What does the invitation look like?'
Irritated, Davide said, "Don't be a smartass!, it's got your picture on it!"
The TZ member frantically searched the Magsafe wallet again for an invite and found a small rectangular mirror on the inside of the lid, but there was no invite in the Magsafe.
The TZ-er said to Davide, "This is all I have with me", and handed it over.
Davide looked in the mirror, handed it back to the TZ member and said, "You're free to go in".
And, if I had known you were Lawrence Llewlyn Bowen, we could have avoided all of this."
I wrote of huge disappointment in there contact form in seeing thisScreenshot_20240428_175011_Chrome.jpg
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I knew it, I have seen this design before.
Wys?ane z iPhone za pomoc? Tapatalk
Surely at this point it's best to bin off Cerrato, he clearly thinks he is bigger than the brand.
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I always thought that venture capital tended to focus on relatively safe bets - no matter how weak the business, there would at least be solid material assets to strip - but here the main assets seem to have been the brand and the concommitant IP, all of which apart from the name is going in the bin. This seems a really good way to get rid of quite a lot of money quickly.
I'll admit that Finance is arcane to the point of bewilderment to me, but I don't see the angle here - Bremont don't own anything of significance, so what's the game?
Yes. The (tangible) book value aka net asset value of the company would seem to be minimal.
By devaluing the brand they’ve lost the one thing Bremont had.
I can’t see this ending well for anyone. But then I always felt it was built on a dodgy foundation: a creation myth that never really rang true and some bad missteps along the way. With The Wing and the plans to make an entire ebauche from scratch in the UK I had hopes for them as a true in-house manufacture but it looks like that’s all gone now. What’s left is something caught between Tudor and CW but without the identity or customer loyalty of either.
I am not sure this is very consistent.
You argue that they have devalued the one thing they have, their brand.
But then argue that the brand was built on dodgy foundations.
Which would seem to indicate that there really wasn't that much to devalue.
For me, there was a relatively strong and consistent story based around the slightly clunky tagline of "Tested Beyond Endurance".
It's a bad phrase, but the message was consistent throughout.
The other main consistency was much of the styling, based around the Trip-tick case.
These were 2 of the 4 mainstays of the brand creation. The others were the Limited Editions (most of which left me cold), and the Military Projects (which certainly seemed to be going great), which also spawned newer ranges.
We (as a forum) may not have loved it all, but I think the brand did succeed in getting quite a lot of traction (here and abroad), and I certainly believe genuine value was created in the brand.
But everywhere I look now there is a majority that are bemoaning the new direction, with its evident backtracking on quality and toughness (for instance 904 Stainless may be what Rolex uses, but if you are treating your 316 cases to achieve a 1200 Vickers Hardness, I'll take the 316 any day).
The fact that all of the styling seems also in the process of being ditched really does (as you rightly say) devalue the past performance, as well as the new direction.
And I certainly agree that it will end badly for many, if not everyone involved.
Well, people bought into it. I just found the whole "crash landed in a French farmer's field" thing slightly . . . overplayed at best, if not downright fanciful.
Yeah, I'll concede that. Fair enough.
That's kind of my point: they created a story that people invested in. And some neat in-house(ish) watches, too. Not my taste personally but I admired the Trip-tick case and the aspiration to build a watch in the UK from the ground up.
Now? Now they look like yet another microbrand using ETA clones and Chinese cases. Watches that should sell for hundreds not thousands, with little intrinsic value and no USP.
His head is bigger than the brand.
To be fair, that could be because the brand has shrunk a bit since he started playing with it.
Tbh they never really had a particularly recognisable design language - I can spot an Oris or a Sinn, a Rolex, an Omega or a Tudor - a cushion cased Seiko Diver or a Doxa, a Hamilton Khaki etc - across a room. I think I’d recognise an MB2 with the 2 crowns and the odd second hand - but the rest? No, don’t think I would
I think that's why the MB2 stood out as their only remotely interesting watch to me. Everything else seemed generic.
I really like Bremont. It has been something of a slow burn for me, but over the years I’’’ve grown to appreciate their watches. I liked the idea that they were a brand trying to revive the British watchmaking industry. I now have three of their watches, an MB, an S501 and a Supermarine Chrono. I like the toolish designs and the way they’’re built. The MB has been in two accidents, both of which would have tested the anti-shock system to the limit, but it never missed a beat. That for me is a great watch, one that has been designed to do a job and exceeds your expectations.
I don’’’t particularly like this rebranding exercise they are currently embarking upon. However, pretty much every watch brand has been in a similar situation at one time or another. I hope they learn from this and don’’’t destroy everything they’’’ve built so far.
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Last edited by Blackhawk; 7th May 2024 at 23:52.
Completely agree
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Another mail shot today trying to flog me an MB2. Surely they’re chuckling every time they hit send. Bizarre.
Triptick cases on some new editions. Maybe things are turning around?
https://us.bremont.com/products/s302-blgn-r-s
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
Pretty sure these were in place before takeover, and displaying the old propeller logo, not the compass.
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There are no new releases (I.e. Watches and Wonders and subsequent) on the UK website that I can see, other than the new logo versions.
There are a number of old logo S302 trip-tick cased models shown under “new releases”, however they are not new. They were released long before the “new branding launch”.
Looks like the US site has them as “new releases” - a bit misleading to their new market from the new owners.
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
Last years models.
From that link, I was just reading Bremont’s blurb about the trip-tick case saying it separates them from other watch manufacturers who use cheaper two piece construction. Kind of embarrassing if they ditch it because it didn’t maximise profit. I really think they need to hold on to some of their past otherwise they are done as a brand.
https://us.bremont.com/blogs/blogboo...e-construction
Always makes me smile more so in the sunshine
RIAC
That is a stunner!
Always makes me smile more so in the sunshine
It really is, I love the matt dial. To be fair though, loads of the heritage pieces are similarly stunning.
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