# Introducing Bremont's First In House Movement



## Timeless: Now WoS (Jan 18, 2010)

*Introducing Bremont's First In House Movement*









​ Today we take our very first look at a brand new special edition from aviation watch legend Bremont that commemorates firsts, past and present. Namely, the watch is inspired by, and includes a part of, the very first working plane ever made by the Wright Brothers in 1903, the Wright Flyer. But it's also the first Bremont to use an in house movement, and the first mass produced movement out of England in quite some time. Let's take a closer look at the movement, the history and the models.
​ *The Introduction*










To understand the watch, we must first understand the history. To that extent, we turn our attention to the Wright Brothers, circa 1903. This is the time of the first successful plane, the machine that would change virtually every facet of the 20th century, from industry, to travel and to warfare.
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​ Lacking the high-tech materials that 21st century aircraft use, fabric was instead hand made for use in the Wright Flyer. Amazingly, much of that fabric survives today, and a small piece of that has been utilized in each of these new Bremont watches.
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​ Here's the rotor from the new Bremont Wright Flyer. You can see the initials of the brothers on the left and right of the rotor on the propeller. This isn't the first time a propeller design has been used, as you'll recall from special editions like the P51, and like that watch, material from the inspiration has been included. However, being non-metallic, it couldn't be integrated into the design in a conventional way. To that end, the material from the original plane is on display at the center of the actual oscillating weight. This material is used with express permission from the Wright family and, as was the case of their Victory watch, portions of the proceeds go to preservation, in this case restoring the historic Wright House.

*The Movement*










Onto the most exciting element of the watch, at least for me. Bremont has long been working on movements at their facility at Henley-on-Thames, but this is the first time they've produced an entire movement by themselves. In my interview with Nick English, co-founder of Bremont, he expressed to me his sincere desire to return the UK to its horological roots and to one day produce almost everything Bremont needed in house. So the Wright Brothers tie in is less marketing and more metaphor--internally, Bremont sees this as the beginning of a new era for them.
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​ Technically speaking, what do we know about the movement? Not much, as of yet, but as soon as we get our hands on it, I'll attempt to go as deep into its design as possible without actually taking it apart. But from the photos and information released already, I can tell you a little about the design.
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​ Let's get the obvious out of the way first--it's an automatic with 25 jewels and it beats at 28,800 BPH. It'll have a power reserve of at least 50 hours, or about 10 hours greater than the industry average. Now onto some more technical discussion.
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​ The automatic winding system is bidirectional in nature. It'll be using the tried and true double reverser system used by major players like Rolex, Omega, ETA and the Grand Seiko 9S. So while not exotic, it's in excellent company.
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​ Bremont has apparently chosen to stick with a smooth balance and regulator, the approach favored by Grand Seiko, Nomos and ETA to name a few brands. Looking at the balance cock, it appears to me that Bremont has chosen to go with a Triovis fine adjustment mechanism over the more conventional Etachron system, which would explain why we don't see a regulator index.
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​ Here's a quick and dirty comparison of the regulation systems involved, contrasting with a photo of a Nomos Xi I took some time ago, which basically confirms the use of a Triovis fine adjustment system and smooth balance. Permit me to speculate for a moment, but the actual dimensions of the movement (it lacks the three dimensional topography associated with most automatics) and beautiful decoration cause me to suspect that we will fairly soon be seeing a hand wound variant as well. This movement will probably be a mule for various complications Bremont develops down the road, a very efficient model of going in house used by many companies, from Nomos, to Carl F. Bucherer to giants such a Girard Parregaux.
​ *The Watches*










But what of the watch itself? The new Wright Flyer has, dare I say it, a somewhat American look to it. As you can see, there's quite a bit of free space on the dial as there are no complications on this model. It's got a antique look, as is only appropriate for a watch like this, accented by Arabic numerals and a bold seconds subdial.
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The Wright Flyer is a limited edition model and is currently the only way to buy an in house Bremont. The steel version, certainly the most affordable of the three, will have 300 instances, whereas the rose gold will have just 100 pieces, and finally, the white gold model will be extremely rare at just 50 pieces. ​


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## Cybotron (Dec 7, 2006)

It's nice but at about $30,000 in steel and $45,000 in gold no thanks.


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## vipereaper30 (Sep 12, 2009)

Wow that is a cool watch but I can't believe the price tag! I'm of the opinion that it is remarkable to have a piece of history such as that on your wrist but it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea. Especially for those of us who don't budget that kind of $$$ on a single watch. 

The movement issue looks troublesome here and I hope they aren't making inaccurate claims. Is the term "in-house" open for interpretation? 

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk


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## Watchstudent (Dec 29, 2013)

Its beautiful.

But the case is too big IMO for that kind of watch and the price is ridiculous. I understand it from a marketing point of view. Just annoying that it isn't really aimed at "normal" people.


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## geezerbutler (Feb 11, 2014)

vipereaper30 said:


> Wow that is a cool watch but I can't believe the price tag! I'm of the opinion that it is remarkable to have a piece of history such as that on your wrist but it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea. Especially for those of us who don't budget that kind of $$$ on a single watch.
> 
> The movement issue looks troublesome here and I hope they aren't making inaccurate claims. Is the term "in-house" open for interpretation?
> 
> Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk


I have reservations about this too. It seems this is definitely a joint effort so can't see how this is different to Christopher Wards' 'in-house' movement. I would have preferred Bremont to be more open and up-front about this. This is part of a post from the Alt1tude forum:

*"There has been some nonsense talked online about this watch whose release was preempted by some trolling at a number of online places.... this is of course nonsense and in 'No Way' impacted on the evening or on people's spirits..... I spoke to Nick and Giles last night and this morning about this and Giles sent me this statement

To the Bremont detractors;

This is Bremont's first progression into developing a complete in-house movement. The movement did not exist until a lot of time, effort and money went into it's design and development - both in the UK and with our long term movement partner, Le Joux Perret, in Switzerland.

What is exciting is that parts of this movement are being made in the UK for the first time by Bremont. This is important because it forms part of a much greater push internally towards the time when a work-horse Bremont movement will be made 100% on British shores. This is not a quick, but it is a very exciting journey and Bremont are totally committed and passionate about bringing back employment in the watch-making sector to the UK.

What we are looking into is how some very confidential and unique movement blue-print information was leaked last night prior to the launch of the Wright Flyer. The authorities are now involved.'"

*


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## Timeless: Now WoS (Jan 18, 2010)

From Bremont:
_
*"There has been some nonsense talked online about this watch whose release was preempted by some trolling at a number of online places.... this is of course nonsense and in 'No Way' impacted on the evening or on people's spirits..... I spoke to Nick and Giles last night and this morning about this and Giles sent me this statement

To the Bremont detractors;

This is Bremont's first progression into developing a complete in-house movement. The movement did not exist until a lot of time, effort and money went into it's design and development - both in the UK and with our long term movement partner, Le Joux Perret, in Switzerland.

What is exciting is that parts of this movement are being made in the UK for the first time by Bremont. This is important because it forms part of a much greater push internally towards the time when a work-horse Bremont movement will be made 100% on British shores. This is not a quick, but it is a very exciting journey and Bremont are totally committed and passionate about bringing back employment in the watch-making sector to the UK.

What we are looking into is how some very confidential and unique movement blue-print information was leaked last night prior to the launch of the Wright Flyer. The authorities are now involved.'"*_

So basically there are two pertinent points for people interested in what's going on: first, the movement was co-developed with LJP and second, this news is a form of corporate sabotage that Bremont takes seriously (as would I).

Here is how I understand the information: there was probably never a movement called the La Joux Perret 6901. There was never a watch that carried this movement. But in order for the commentator on Hodinkee and elsewhere to appear to be an outsider, he had to claim to recognize it from elsewhere (he claims it is from LJP's "standard range"). In reality, this person probably has an axe to grind and access within Bremont or LJP and knew of the cooperation.

Before we rush to judge Bremont, there are still some facts we need to know. It's extremely common inside the industry to collaborate with outside experts when going out into a new field. In fact, it's common in most industries. What we're trying to find out now is what the degree of involvement Bremont had in the design of this movement. If, for instance, Bremont's designers worked very closely with LJP's experts, it's fair to say that it is Bremont designed. If LJP was brought in to design a single area of the movement, for example, and the rest was Bremont, or perhaps Bremont merely wanted access to LJP's lab for testing the movement that they designed. There are all sorts of scenarios where Bremont could have collaborated with LJP and the resulting movement could be said to be Bremont/British designed. It's also possible the opposite is true. It's all speculation at the moment.

But my point of caution is that we don't know which case it is yet. This isn't the TAG/Seiko incident, where it was obvious an entire movement was brought over. The Bremont movement didn't exist before Bremont's involvement--and therefore, unlike with the 1887, the question of what degree of involvement Bremont had is very much alive.

Although we are a Bremont dealer and fans, we are just as interested in finding out exactly what's going on here as anyone else. We will never mislead you in anything we write. We are trying to get in contact with Bremont to see if they can tell us anything more that would shed light on the situation.

I only ask you to suspend judgment for the time being. When we have all the facts, we will revisit this issue and we can have a discussion on whether or not Bremont was honest with their fans in discussing the creation of this movement.


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## Jwalker9 (Feb 4, 2011)

Very well said, Dan! Thanks for pointing out the facts, and current lack there of, in this movement situation. 

In my opinion, despite being pushed into a defensive stance by an unknown poster with access to information he shouldnt have, Bremont have earned the right to speak on this matter before everyone comes rushing to judgement and accusing the company of falsifying information.


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## tdk (Oct 21, 2008)

This movement from Arnold and Son looks very similar:
http://www.ablogtowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Arnold-and-Son-DSTB-6.jpg


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## CitizenM (Dec 9, 2009)

tdk said:


> This movement from Arnold and Son looks very similar:
> http://www.ablogtowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Arnold-and-Son-DSTB-6.jpg


From another thread in F2:










More than a passing resemblance, although the other side of the movement appears to be quite different:










Movement specs from member Mew88:

_I should also probably point out they are very different in specs.

The A&S 6003 is 32 jewels, diameter 38 mm, thickness 7.39 mm, power reserve 50 h, 28,800 vibrations/h
The BWC/01 is 25 jewels, 33.4mm, 50-hour power reserve as per Hodinkee's article._


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## tdk (Oct 21, 2008)

CitizenM said:


> From another thread in F2:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I wonder if the A&S has a module attached to a base caliber.


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## CitizenM (Dec 9, 2009)

tdk said:


> I wonder if the A&S has a module attached to a base caliber.


That could address the thickness difference (and obviously the complications), but it wouldn't explain the different diameter. Of course, that assumes these specs are correct in the first place.


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## dsmcastro (Nov 26, 2013)

and now they come up with the truth behind their movement
The Real Story Behind The Bremont Wright Flyer In-House Made BWC/01 "London" Watch Movement | aBlogtoWatch


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## Perseus (Mar 25, 2010)

dsmcastro said:


> and now they come up with the truth behind their movement
> The Real Story Behind The Bremont Wright Flyer In-House Made BWC/01 "London" Watch Movement | aBlogtoWatch


After the Tag Seiko ordeal I'm surprised anyone would allude to having an in-house movement when it's " the same base La Joux-Perret mechanism."


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## samanator (Mar 8, 2008)

It appears this thread and the others here have run their course with no relevant new content. Given this I am closing these threads now. I'm aware this has been done on many other forums and everyone is looking to move on now. It's time to get back to the watches.


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