Reply With QuoteJust a shame they didn’t sponsor Compagnoini back in 54.
Bremont trumps Rolex in the Himalayas
Climbing Everest? Pah! It’s too easy.
K2 is where it’s at. It’s way harder than Everest to climb, and nobody’s ever climbed K2 in winter. Oh, hang on, I’ve just spotted a Bremont on the summit of K2 in January!
Okay, you’d wear an altimeter-watch for climbing in the Greater Ranges. Modern mountaineers need a watch that also shows the altitude, and an alarm function is handy too. But Bremont sponsors the mountaineering legend that is Nims Purja. Thus, a Bremont made the summit of “the killer mountain”.
Pedants will notice that this photo isn't the summit of K2. But, hey, that's marketing!
Just a shame they didn’t sponsor Compagnoini back in 54.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Given the reportedly appalling behaviour by Compagnoni on K2, I'd rather have seen some sponsorship money go to Amir Mehdi (whom Compagnoni caused to spend a night in the open at 8,100 metres!).
More positively, I'm glad that watch companies like Bremont are sponsoring expeditions. It made Nims Purja's Project Possible possible.
What's Rolex got to do with Everest? They didn't have a watch on the summit till the 1960s.
Doesn't matter - Rolex are the first watch to the summit of K2 in winter.Originally Posted by Rev-O
I'm sure they are busy trying to work the re-write out.
Anyway good on Bremont, nice that it is a UK company.
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Amazing feat for the climbers.
I wonder if we'll see a large number of repeats relatively quickly or if it remains unusual due to the higher risk.
K2 at any time is playing roulette with the Bottleneck.
If five of you set off, only four are coming back.*
To do it in winter... incredible. If that was a regular thing, I dread to think what the stats would be.
*on average.
Climbing K2 at any time of year is an exceptional achievement but in winter, it's astonishing. Temperatures of minus seventy C, impossible gradients and winds at over 70 mph. If anyone could do it, it was the Nepalese Sherpas led by Nirmal Purja. It also shows how much western climbers owe the Sherpas when climbing K2 and in the Himalaya.
However, I still wouldn't buy a Bremont, and for all their usual marketing schtick - their team must be asleep as they have nothing about this great achievement on their website, not that I can see. I wonder how much they ponied up?
Certainly true. And in the watch world the Sherpas can perhaps find some recognition in the Enicar Sherpa (originally Sherpas) models, so named after a Swiss expedition using Enicar watches reached the summit of Mt. Everest and was the first to scale Lhotse (4th highest mountain) in 1956.
Last edited by 50kopek; 20th January 2021 at 17:37.
Precisely. Is Bremont’s marketing team furloughed? Why are they snoozing through this PR opportunity? If Nims wore a Rolex, it would have been all over social media and appearing in a National Geographic advert.
Incidentally, not only did the Nepalese team climb K2 in winter, but Nims Purja summited without supplementary oxygen. I’m convinced he was born on the planet Krypton, not in Nepal.
The Bottleneck fills me with awe and dread.
https://youtu.be/wGOiJ90wlC0
Plenty of posts across their social media 3 days ago...
On Twitter, Bremont only posted two or three times about their watch on the K2 winter ascent (hidden between tweets about a photo competition, the Bremont Supermarine, and Charley Boorman). Does Bremont focus more on Instagram?
How many posts were you expecting! If they’d posted more they’d be slammed for over egging their involvement!
Re Bremont and marketing: Rolex regularly use pics of Hillary and Tenzing on the summit in '53 despite neither of them actually wearing a Rolex when that photo was taken.
As for this being done by local climbers, anyone here read "Rum Doodle"? ;-)
Isn’t the K2 team Nepalese?
To be fair, from an horological point it's not an achievement at all. When Rolex used human endeavours to promote their watches (legit or not) it said something about the watch that most of the other watch makers could not match, from the Oyster case across the Channel, the Pan Am GMT, to James Cameron's dive in the Mariana Trench. Today it says nothing about Bremont watches (although it says something about their marketing, and for once it's genuine).
However, it is indeed a massive human achievement. Lionel Terray (who, among many other mountaineering exploits, took part in the first climb to the summit of both Annapurna and Makalu in the early 50s) wrote a wonderful book, "Les conquérants de l'inutile" (Conquistadors of the Useless). The title is what attracted me as a 12 yo and is the reason why, when given a chance to start rock climbing, I jumped (not literally) at the opportunity.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Go find the dude who skied K2 from top to base camp. Mental!
Oh and to add to Nims achievement, he did it without supplementary O2....
Agree, not a huge horoligcal achievement but a good marketing ploy.
Even a lowly Smiths made it to the top of Everest ‘carried’ by someone
A few decades later a solid brand like Bremont should be able to do it easily..
Having said that Bremont makes excellent watches that Brits should be proud of
Eddie plays in a different playing field, so the old timers shouldn’t feel they are being disrespectful to Eddie by lauding Bremont ( the elephant in the room).
Marketing aside Brits should be proud of Bremont and should laud and support it.
They shouldn’t hide behind the excuses of questionable marketing because they support quite a few less deserving causes.
‘Lowly’? Wash your mouth out!
Good point about another British manufacturer.
That didn't look too difficult. I'm clearly missing something. This on the other hand is insane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dMVvvIt8M
They’re also not making a big deal about their laptop for schools pledge which given its hard to bash them for hasn’t got much traction here either.
Yes, I agree it's a massive human achievement.
It is Rolex's marketing – not its manufacturing – that I find other watchmakers struggle to match. For example, Rolex made a great fuss about its association with Hilary and Tenzing's ascent of Everest. Rolex's marketing infers that their watch was the first on the summit of Everest. (But we know it was a Smiths, not a Rolex.)
Similarly, Rolex used Mercedes Gleitze to market its Oyster case. The first English woman to swim the Channel, she was a brand ambassador for Rolex. But she didn't wear a watch on her wrist while swimming the Channel. Mercedes Gleitze is an insightful example: Rolex was using brand ambassadors as far back as the 1920s.
In November 1927, Rolex invested in a full front-page advert in the Daily Mail to launch the Oyster. And Rolex made Gleitze an official brand ambassador, featuring her prominently in advertising for many years. I've read speculation that the Mercedes hour-hand is a nod to her!
Rolex's marketing inferred that the Oyster was the first waterproof watch in 1926. It wasn't. Almost a decade earlier, the Tavannes Watch Company created the "Submarine" watch (at two British submarine commanders' request). But Tavannes lacked Rolex's marketing expertise!
That's strange. Usually we make a big deal about any charity work from watch manufacturers (present host excepted)
You are obviously slacking
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
As I said, legit or not ;)
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Marketing blah blah blah!
The constant refrain is getting unbearably and pitifully tiresome. People really need to find something better to do with their time.
Good marketing is essential for any watch company to stay in business. I'm not bashing Rolex; they do marketing better than virtually everyone else, and it's doubtless why the company's so successful. I'm fascinated that Rolex has been using brand ambassadors since at least the 1920s. It's a long time! Thus, Rolex must have developed immense organizational know-how in using them successfully.
But what I don't like in any watch company is inaccurate claims in their advertising. Sponsoring Mercedes Gleitze as a brand ambassador, and then inferring that the Rolex contributed to her English Channel success, was an inference too far. Inferring that a Rolex was the first watch on the summit of Everest was good marketing but bad practice. Shouldn't we criticize any brand for stepping over the marketing line? And this criticism doesn't detract from the high quality of their watches (surely, we can have a nuanced discussion?).
Last edited by Dougal; 21st January 2021 at 18:56.
Well said...stretching the truth or dishonesty isn't really a good look.
Though Bremont lied about a watch movement being in-house (Wright Flyer) surely lying about a product is much worse
I don’t think many people care.
Indeed.. From K2climb.net ;
A large Mi-17 Pakistani army helicopter has airlifted the 10 Nepali summiters out of Base Camp. After a brief local welcome in Skardu, they have continued on to Islamabad for an official reception.
The flight spared climbers the long trek back to Skardu, but Mingma Gyalje, aka Mingma G, suggests that injuries may also be involved. “Out of 10, only two are now in good condition, with the other eight members sustaining frostbite,” he told the Kathmandu Post. “I cannot describe in words how tough Saturday night was. It really tested the limit of Sherpas.
“As we negotiated the dangerous Bottleneck fixing ropes, some of the friends, including me, had decided on two different occasions to give up,” he said over the phone from Base Camp yesterday. “I would like to thank Nirmal Purja, who encouraged me and boosted my confidence. I was numb but I could hear Purja encouraging me.”
Eventually, Mingma G managed to continue: “I felt like there was no point in turning back.”
In a talk with Alan Arnette, he spoke about his eventual choice to use supplementary oxygen, revealing that “the plan all along was for only one person in the team to go without [it].”
He said that he started using oxygen at Camp 4, because he felt so cold. It is unclear how or when Nirmal Purja became the one chosen to go without bottled oxygen.
Mingma also said that the team would make an official statement in Islamabad, where they would address the question of style and oxygen for once and all.
Meanwhile, the climbers remaining in Base Camp have a few bad-weather days of rest ahead of them. John Snorri and the Sadparas have confirmed that they are still going for the summit. We’re still awaiting news about no-O2 hopefuls Tamara Lunger and Juan Pablo Mohr. Lunger has posted a selfie in Base Camp with some of the successful summiters, so she is still there for the moment. Mohr, never too keen to expose himself on social media, and deeply affected by Sergi Mingote’s passing, has made no comment yet.
Not sure about that, cause a real sh!t storm back then
With the watch buying public?
True...nobody really cares about Bremont anyway
Even if the public don’t care, it’s wrong for a company to lie to customer's. I don’t know the Bremont details, but a company’s honesty speaks volumes.
Yes it’s wrong to claim a movement is in-house when it’s not, that is what Bremont did.
So, Bremont followed TAG Heuer’s fine tradition of misleading customers about the origin of “in-house” movements. Not that I’m criticising TAG Heuer’s Calibre 1887 movement (designed by Seiko)
To be fair to Rolex, at least their advertising always uses apostrophes correctly.
They were used by many team members on the 1953 expedition though right? Everest isn't just the summit. Rolex has some legit mountaineering pedigree, even if they didn't summit first.
With respect, Everest is (at least for marketing purposes) "just the summit." Plenty of other mountains out there. Only one is the highest. The'd tried to get to the top with the Swiss team in '52. It was important to them.
I think most watches can survive Everest though so what really is the big deal, the conditions on the wrist of a living human being cannot be that bad, and ok atmospheric pressure might be considerably lower, but even the most basic citizen diver is resistant to 20 bar.
I'm unclear why asking the RGS nicely to accept free watches like so:
from 1933 onwards actually counts as 'mountaineering pedigree' and it's worth bearing in mind that the early Oyster wasn't the watch we know and love today. Beyond that, they contributed nothing. Without Smiths, the '53 expedition would have struggled. Much of the specialist equipment used by Pugh to work out precisely how to beat the peak (from oxygen to hydration, climb rate to snacks) was Smiths instrumentation. It was Smiths (and Omega!) that were used to get the science right.
As for the first waterproof watches, Borgel got the first fully waterproof watch patent in in 1895. The patent for the waterproof wristwatch used by Mallory in 1924 was from 1906 and he wore the very same watch from 1915, through the Great War and up Everest three times.
It now rests in the RGS collection after being recovered in '99 by Anker's team. I am personally quite certain he made it to the summit in '24 and so that (and an Ingersol Radiolite) were the first watches on the summit.
Last edited by M4tt; 22nd January 2021 at 14:47.
Having climbed reasonably seriously wearing a watch, atmospheric pressure is the least of the watch's problems. Being smacked, ground and dragged against rock is risk number one. You need a bulletproof cockroach of a watch that wears close and low, can cope with shocks, sweat and cold. Somewhere I have the remains of an old Heuer that I used to wear as a climbing beater back in the day. It looks like it's spent a day in a concrete mixer.
That’s fair enough, I got altitude sickness skiing in Val Thorens so am a relative weakling. Sounds like a job for a G Shock!
My climbing days were spent wearing a citizen or Suunto. I agree alpine limestone is particularly abrasive to everything and you don’t want to fall on a dry glacier, it’s like falling on broken glass!
Of course the summit is important. It's a huge achievement. But the question you raised was "what's Rolex got to do with Everest."
Many team members contributed to the success of '53, I wouldn't dismiss their efforts just because they didn't summit. The first pair to attempt the final summit in '53, both of whom were allegedly wearing Rolex, came within 100m of the final summit and had to turn back due to a fault with their O2 equipment. You mentioned that Rolex also equipped the Swiss team in '52, which didn't summit but did break altitude records and paved the new path that was used in '53 (not to mention Norgay was on that '52 expedition, came 250m from the top, and then brought that experience to the expedition in '53). Hopefully you see my point.
EDIT: As I've gone down the rabbit hole, here's some other interesting info (although I can only take it at face value):
https://www.markhorrell.com/blog/201...ry-of-everest/
See post #2: https://www.intlwatchleague.com/show...hes-on-Everest
Forgive me I don't climb mountains, but I was led to believe timekeeping is a critical necessity. This isn't another Smiths vs Rolex conversation is it? I don't see anybody doubting the Smiths contribution.
Last edited by M1011; 22nd January 2021 at 15:00.
If anything it's Smiths V Borgel or Fountmelion However, I can confirm that both of the first team were wearing Rolex 6098 with solid photographic evidence. While the article you cite is quite right, the main reason that Norgay was there was because his wife asked him to go as he had been moping around the house recovering from a serious back injury the year before. When he set off to walk to Kathmandu he was in poor condition and he certainly made the final ascent in less than optimum condition. Had they known how badly he'd been injured, how far out of condition he in fact was or that the injury was still problematic he'd never have been let near the mountain. It's a testament to the man that even carrying that baggage he managed to get to play the role he did.
Incidentally - have a look at Horrel's other piece about the last sighting of Mallory - that's bloody wonderful!
I think we should have a photo of that.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
I’d have to work out where the hell it ended up first.
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