Reply With QuoteI am surprised he even has a reflection
“Once upon a time there was a king, and the king commissioned his favourite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn’t show you your reflection. It showed you your soul - it showed you who you really were.
The wizard couldn’t look at it without turning away. The king couldn’t look at it. The courtiers couldn’t look at it. A chestful of treasure was offered to anyone who could look at it for sixty seconds without turning away. And no one could.”
Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest
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."
Some faces really do provoke a primæval instinct to undertake acts of violence upon them...Originally Posted by dkpw
___
Bravo! WOTDChortle,,, dressed in his finest wizarding gown, standing in front of his magic mirror, Davide contemplates his next horological thaumaturgy.
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 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
I'd noticed their latest mailshot didn't include any of the new watches.
I would love to know what is currently being made in the factory right now - are there new MB2 cases being machined or is stock being run down. The mailshot was very confusing from a branding point of view.
Incredibly confusing.
The font in the email for "Altitude" is the new Bremont font, but then a different font is used on the website.
They'd be nuts to ditch the MB2. I think that was their most inspired model and gave Bremont a unique angle amongst the luxury watch companies.
dressing gown + cravat = bellend
Whenever I hear anyone use the words "alchemy" or "alchemist" I think of the John Finnemore sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7g5em_Iug
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!!!
Strangely the first thing I think of is this:
Davide Cerrato obviously fancies himself as a modern day Lord Percy.
Gary
I think he sees himself more in the mould of Leonardo Acropolis:
They've gone from Bre-montre to Bre-monstrosity.
Still, at least the prices are the same.
Followed by Bredundancies, and then Breceivership...?
Funny how everything prefaced by "Bre-" turns to s***.
Not everything, fortunately :)
Breakfast? My high fibre cereal certainly does. Keep me regular as (imported) clockwork.
Well, I just ordered one of the old models!
At these prices, given they are mostly Sellita and can be repaired cheaply if the company goes bust, they’re starting to look reasonable, especially when you combine them with voucher codes.
The problem they really had was Tudor. Tudor became very successful and Bremont found themselves priced above it. Longines too has had a creative spurt at around £3k or below. If you put a Pélagos next to Bremont at full price, I don’t think I would take the Bremont.
The CEO was right about pushing the price down. Unfortunately, if they move the manufacturing to Switzerland, you might as well buy a CW Trident for £1k.
True. Although I’m not sure they had previously settled on what segment of the market they were aiming for. Whilst most models seemed to be the same market as Tudor they were pursuing the in-house movement and had quite a few pieces (mostly with bits of other things incorporated into the rotor) at much higher prices. It feels to me like it’s only now they have set their stall at chasing the lower end of the luxury market.
Yet their new releases start at £2500 and end at £5400 for something with a bit of gold sprinkled on it. Tudor start at £1700 for something ladies, £2860 for a Ranger which is arguably where the comparison truly begins, and then go up to just over £6k for a chrono with some gold bits.
I don't think they're targeting a different market at all - it's exactly the same people, being asked to buy a technically deficient product that affords Bremont a higher margin. Nothing wrong with that, they can do what they like and it will probably work, but it will put people like "us" off.
I don’t blame you. I built this on their MBII simulator today and absolutely love it. If only I could afford it :(
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I'd like to make a prediction. My prediction is that Nick and Giles English will buy back Bremont for £1 in 3-5 years and have a grand relaunch bringing back the famous Bremont Tip-Trick Case Construction. It's going to be glorious!
I would put a fiver on that!
Save it and outbid the brothers 😂
Fair point well made!
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?
The going rate seems to be 30% below RRP with some occasional freebies. If you fancy it, it might be a good idea to make an offer to an AD. I wonder if that 30% level comes from Bremont to shift inventory. Yes, I like that one. The one I went for (if it turns up) is the Ionbird which seems to do what the Longines Zulu does but in an expensive titanium Trip Tick case.I don’t blame you. I built this on their MBII simulator today and absolutely love it. If only I could afford it :(
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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.
One word of warning (as a long time owner of one Bremont, and a very short term owner of another).
Bremont seem to do nothing to harden their titanium cases.
As a result (especially by comparison to their surface hardened steel cases) they mark up quite badly. In fact, it seemed on my Ti one (an Amercia's Cup LE) that it marked a whole lot more easily than any other Ti watch that I have owned (and that's a few, I still have ones from Tutima, Sinn, RZE etc etc).
It was evident that every time the springbar had been dragged across the inside of the lugs, it had cut a shallow scratch across it.
It was very disappointing, as the steel Bremont I have (and still have) is ludicrously tough, and almost unmarked despite being 14 years old.
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.
None of the S500 cases, Ti or SS had surface coatings/hardening on the top bezel. It was only the middle barrel that was PVD'd or DLC'd.
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.
I know you worked there, but.....
The hardening process is not the DLC process. The hardening can happen without the colouring.
The top bezel of my Alt1_P is definitely hardened, it is way tougher than "normal steel". The MB series was sold with "hardened case" and as the barrel is aluminium, only the front (and caseback?) can be hardened. I was sure the same hardening was also used for the S500.
At least originally, which had all of the "toughness tech" like the movement suspension, that the MB was designed with.
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.
I know, I was just pointing out that the S500 was not treated. It definitely was not treated, except for the crown protector.
The tech specs on the website also confirm that the top bezel was never treated, and the case backs were not treated for any model since I worked there.
Seems a characteristically irrational bit of decision-making to leave the most vulnerable part of the entire watch untreated - e.g. it's the only hardened part of Sinn U-series divers unless you pay the extra for the hardened case.
Can a merger be far behind:
Yes. Totally mad. Not sure MrB has that 100% right. I can't see why the bezel and lugs on my Alt1 would be hardened (as well as the barrel), and nothing of the front half of the case on SM500.
If I start telling people on here I'll get accused of being a bitter and disgruntled ex employee so I can't be bothered. You can look into yourself if you want you don't need to believe me but it's all very evident.
As an aside , how many on here have seen more than one Bremont in the wild. Ill start , in serious watch watching since 2010 I havnt seen one. But then again…………I dont live in London ;). What was their genuine market penetration ?
I work with a few former military guys and they all sport them proudly. Generally see them quite often but I'm always looking at what others are wearing.
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I've never seen one in the wild, unless you count Robson Green's MB that he wears when on the tele?
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