Reply With Quotewhatba great experience and what a great waych to remember it by.
I have a soft spot for the P51 especially when painted in RAF / RAAF colours. I made an airfix model of that exact aircraft as a kid.
Hi all. I haven't posted in a while as it was all pretty quiet on the watch front and I've been busy with work. As some of you know, I am an illustrator and do a lot of work with Marvel and related companies. I recently worked on the Black Panther and Infinity War movies, launched some comics under my own brand, etc., so watches kinda faded into the background. What I do explains somewhat the following...
A little while ago I was contacted by Bremont about a possible project involving a vintage aeroplane. It immediately got my interest as I am a huge fan of both Bremont and planes. Long story short, I was asked, as someone who does a lot of Marvel art, to paint nose art on the Bremont co-founder Nick's 1950's Broussard plane, which is nicknamed the Bremont Bus, as a tie in with Sony for their Venom movie starring Tom Hardy. Tom is a Bremont fan and brand ambassador and friends with Nick. Nick really wanted this to be a very WW2 style kind of project, hand painted directly on the plane, very improvisational. Even though I've never done anything remotely like it, I don't back down from a challenge, so I decided to bring some paints and brushes and get to work. No stencils, no airbrush, just drawing and painting directly on the plane.
More relevant to this forum though is that I really wanted to commemorate this project with a watch, and one which would be appropriate to the whole event. After much thinking and a trip to Bremont's Mayfair boutique to try it on, I settled on the Boeing 247 Ti-GMT. It might sound disingenuous considering the circumstances, but it is a stunning watch. Certainly the best I've ever owned, and one which will, for me, forever have a great story attached to it. COSC certified, independent GMT, Titanium including the bracelet (plus kevlar and leather straps), screw down pushers, etc. A forever watch.
As if all of this wasn't cool enough, the painting was to take place at the Aircraft Restoration Company premises at the Duxford Airfield. While painting I was constantly surrounded by Spitfires, Mustangs, a Hurricane, and so on. All working planes, many of which kept coming and going, even doing loops above us at lunch. Simply breathtaking. ARC supplied the planes for the movie Dunkirk. In fact the owner of the company, John Romain, flew the Me 109 in the film.
Anyhow, onto the photos:
The Broussard painted black in preparation for me:
I was so excited to open this in the hotel room!
And a few extras from this amazing place:
Both of these planes were flying during my two days there. The P-51 was doing acrobatics for about an hour, coming as low as the tops of hangars. The sounds it made was astonishing.
whatba great experience and what a great waych to remember it by.
I have a soft spot for the P51 especially when painted in RAF / RAAF colours. I made an airfix model of that exact aircraft as a kid.
Awesome watch ! - fantastic artwork - I bet they were iver the moon...
Great story...
thanks
Matt
I am usually partial to Spitfires, but was really taken by this Mustang.Originally Posted by Sinnlover
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Thanks Matt!
I guess the watch was a gift from Nick and Giles in lieu of the artistic work you did for them.
What a great day and location to work in.
Stunning job stunning brand I’ve had my bremont for a year now and I love it just don’t understand the haters.
Brillant post and my son aged 10 who is a massive marvel geek was very impressed that I "know" you
Not quite, but I didn't want money.
Nice to see you back Adi!
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Thank you. You should see the haters in my line of work! Almost every project I work on, according to some people we are going to open the gates of hell! No surprise at all that a newish brand such as Bremont would rock the boat.
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Tell him I say hi!
Thanks dude! I never really went away, I'd check in frequently, but my own interest in watches got so bad I stopped wearing them more than once a week at most. Now I have four requiring servicing!
Amazing artwork, what a great contract. Well done! Nice that you have the watch to enjoy too, enjoy it.
Great work (and I like the watch, too).
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Really interesting thread, thanks. Also probably my favourite Bremont Chrono; pictures never quite do it justice.
Interesting post and pictures, thanks.
ook
What a great story on all aspects.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I was strolling past that hanger at Duxford only last Wednesday, idly thinking “...I wonder what goes on in there...”?
Now I know!!!
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What do you mean? I’m a massive Marvel geek and I’m impressed you are on this forum.
I very much enjoy your “Day job” work as well as this fantastic project.
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Looks great - both your artwork and the watch! I happen to be wearing my Bremont today and it never ceases to impress me.
Thanks guys. It really was fun, and everyone involved was really easy to work with. Aircraft Restoration Co. crew were really accommodating even though we were invading their space. Sony sent a crew to film the whole process and interview me and Nick, so there will be a document of it all. Fingers crossed the movie is good!
Another cool thing is that Tom Hardy revealed the plane on his instagram before anyone had approved it, so we went public with it way ahead of schedule.
As for the watch, I thought quite hard about my choices and this one covered all bases. It had to be a pilot's watch (only appropriate to the project), and since I travel between US and Asia (but live in the UK) frequently, I wanted a GMT. Chrono wasn't a requirement, but after seeing the screw down pushers I was sold (I've missed my old Plasmir Milgraph greatly since I sold it and I loved its pushers), same with the bracelet. Finally, I love the darker shade of Ti and the light weight.
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Thanks! It was a nice change of scenery from my day to day routine.What do you mean? I’m a massive Marvel geek and I’m impressed you are on this forum.
I very much enjoy your “Day job” work as well as this fantastic project.
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So it was you the artist then? I was looking at this through the Instagram posts and stories!
Such a good work! Congratulations.
And such a nice watch to mark and remember the occasion!
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Fantastic watch and great story!
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What a great story and lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing. I hope to own a Bremont one day.
Lovely PR Spitfire in the background, I do love them in that blue.
Great post. I enjoyed reading it and the fact that sometimes our day to day lives spill over into our hobbies in peculiar and special ways. Thanks for sharing.
Lovely art work. A nice tie in. Bremont looks fantastic. Definitely on my list to own one soon...
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Absolutely fantastic work Adi, you were 100% the right man for the job.
Great stuff, certainly a day to remember. Enjoy your watch, Bremont make some great stuff.
Nice watch and great post.
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Thank you everyone. It really was a special experience. I am in love with the watch!
Bremont sent me some more photos and said that Sony are doing air to air filming with it for the film. Really exciting!
Photos are ©aircraftrestorationcompany
[img]http://adigranov.net/postphoto/Bremont23.jpg[/img]
[img]http://adigranov.net/postphoto/Bremont22.jpg[/img]
Just to resurrect this thread. We just returned from Duxford air-show today. And had a chance to go to the the Bremont tent. What an over-looked brand. I know they are not steeped in Swiss history - but it is great to see a a British firm producing watches with
integrity and passion. And certain pieces they have teamed up with aviation icons (like including bits of Spitfire or cloth from the Write Brothers first flight plane and so on).
I tried on one of their divers and and quite a few others - rather impressed.
I'll get some air show shots uploaded sometime soon too for those interested?
Martyn
Hmmm... not so sure about the integrity bit though perhaps they’ve since learned their lesson....
At the time of the launch of the Wright Flyer, I recall that they very deliberately claimed that the movement was designed and built in the UK, and fully in-house. This was a giant porky because it was actually developed by La Joux-Perret and only partly produced in London. They were of course rumbled very quickly and had to do an unseemly backpedal. They’re not the only watch brand to play loose with their marketing, but their naïveté surprised me and the dishonesty really put me off the brand.
Edit: I do like the look of Adigra’s new watch. Very clean design.
Last edited by Argon; 15th July 2018 at 01:03.
What a great story, great thread, great artwork, and a great watch! Congratulations!!
Thanks so much for posting!
Cheers Martin
Great story. Great work too.
Wow! that's all... Wow!!
Venom #1-tastic!
I must admit, I haven't read it. Must see if there are any copies left at Page 45.
Great YouTube video about the plane.
https://youtu.be/O4Qt9IsjKDo
I remember reading about some of your work a while back. A very cool project and great to see some creative awesomeness here at tz-uk. Congrats as well on the pick up to commemorate the project too :)
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