Bremont Watches Is In Deep Trouble | A Decade of 0 Profits?

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[PocketWatchTime]

The picture of the rock climber advertising the watch minus wearing the watch is hilarious. Way to go overpaid marketing guy for doing stupid marketing.

[DarkGreenGoblin]

Was a Bremont fan. Big fan. Davide Cerrato has ruined Bremont. Trashed the brand overnight. Lost their identity. Used to love them. Now, they can get in the bin. Rant over 💪🏻🤣

[kinnfar]

As a Brit and a Bremont fan. I didn't actually mind the pricing of the products, I thought they put a lot of effort into the case designs, the finish of the watches, the experience and of course investing in the manufacturing here in the UK. The old brand had a lot of appeal to me, I loved the old world, British empire field watch aesthetic (think Smiths or early Rolex) and I thought the founders, being present, gave the brand a much more relatable back story. For me the watches gave the vibe of timepieces from the 1940's and 50's. There was a distinct tool watch, go anywhere aesthetic and I think they got it right using a few well known (in the UK) ambassadors that were either adventurers or ex-servicemen.

The new branding is as generic as their new timepieces. They had a huge amount of brand equity and heritage built into the old models and the visual identity. They could have kept this, reduced their model range and reduced the complexity of their timepieces without throwing this away. As someone who works in the brand space, this is a massively poor move from Bremont.

[stevefox]

As a patriotic Brit it was the bs backstory that killed any appeal for me. . Military British watches - we think of CWC, not Bremont. Even the name put me off - seriously, two brothers named English name their company after a French man 🤯
Doomed to fail.
Wish the new version all the best, but got a lot to get over ..

[iFyvie]

Same relative age as Christopher Ward.. massively drastic difference between the two brands 20 years into their respective lifespans. Bremont is a whipping boy in the industry and CW continues to chug along doing their own thing with a lot of success.

[gonzo]

I don't think I ever "got" Bremont as a brand. The new models don't look appealing to me.

[koenraadprincen]

IMO, Bremont only makes a chance if they build a *100%* *_"Made in the UK"_* watch, including a UK-made movement.
It took "Habring2" - a watchmaker from Austria - (only) about 2500 hours to turn a ETA/Valjoux 7750-movement into something of their own and this includes a self designed escapement (there is a video of them on Youtube).

The UK builds the best F1 racing cars and the best jet engines... don't tell me they can't built a decent movement.

Looking back at John Harrison, they should even use a _detent escapement_ (marine chronometer) as applied by Raúl Pagès in his "RP1".

[benchapman]

They have been playing to the GQ Hondinkee fashionistas from the outset, laughably priced, sticking bits of planes or Amelia Earhart's knickers on the rotor as a usp, and wanting to be so hip and cool in the glossy mags. Perhaps they are now enjoying humble pie with their canapes.

[wittmanist]

My most hated 'luxury' brand. Nearly every watch is ripping off someone else's name/heritage- spitfires, other planes, hawking, hercules etc etc. Always jumping on fame they don't have any connection with.
Happy to see it doesn't work. Absolute scabs.

[philspencelayh]

We have a dealer near us who also sell Rolex and Omega and for many years I'd look at their offerings and though "ok, but not quite me" expecting the right one to come along before I'd buy because they were pretty pricey even then. Then I saw the £40, 000 special editions and realised they want to be Rolex and think putting the prices up will make them more desirable. It's a shame, I'd like to see a British watch maker making stuff we could afford and want.

[alwayspooh]

One of the issues for me is I do not want 'London' on my wrist. London is has been ruined as a city, and Bremont expect people to shout it out!

[mvm]

I mean, $3k to $5k for a Chinese watch with an ETA movement in it (except for the LJP they tried to pass as in-house) is still a LOT of money. I would just prefer to buy 10 San Martins. The fact that they can go from $10k to $3k overnight makes you realize how much they were stealing their 5 clients.

[minutes-turkish]

The pricing was the major sticking point for Bremont. Truly aspirational. They had some cool looking models and I liked their aesthetic.
If they had just slimmed down some of their pieces and brought down the price some I feel they could’ve had some better success.
The rebrand is a fucking mess though. Those plastic looking numerals look cheap af and a snap in caseback? Wtf… I thought it was so bad that maybe it was on purpose to generate interest in their legacy models

[jameskwon]

Jimmy Chinn is a climber but is primarily a filmmaker. He is known for his films about climbing and climbers. He famously filmed Free Solo, the film about the guy who climbed El Capitan without ropes or any safety equipment. But why Bremont chose him in his advertisement, I don't really know. I'm assuming he doesn't wear a watch while climbing because a watch can get hung up or caught in equipment and that is a no go.

[melspinella]

When I first saw these watches...I thought they were Aliexpress watches. Then realized they were the new Bremont novelties...crash and burn...it's over Bremont

[adbraham]

They never made military ISSUE watches: as I understand it they occasionally sold watches to groups of individuals from military units, who got together to bulk-buy watches in the same way a sports team or similar group of like-minded individuals might want to club together to get a slightly ‘branded’ option. Many manufacturers will offer this if there sufficient numbers to make any minor alterations an option to customise said watches to the group requirements. What Bremont then did, if my understanding is correct, and please somebody, correct me if I’m wrong, was attempt to imply that these watches were somehow “official issue”. This sort of disingenuous marketing upset a proportion of their potential market.

[trulsdirio]

Bremont is basically the fashion watch concept, without a fashion brand, at ten times the price. Genius!

[willbrink]

Always been good watches, always been wildly over priced. I like some of the new designs and the reduction in prices, so maybe that will help. Too little too late?

[acewings]

Bremont watches have always intrigued me…definitely a brand that has shown a lot of promise. The main problem with Bremont is that they are charging “established luxury brand” prices for watches with ETA movements. They are wayyyy overpriced for what they are

[Sparkadian]

Getting rid of the military aspect is crazy, there striped ejector seat secondhand was pretty cool.