A Tour of Bremont’s “The Wing” Facility

Since Bremont was founded by Nick and Giles English in 2002, they have always harboured an ambition to invest in watchmaking on British soil. Fast forward 19 years, and the English brothers have taken a huge step to realising this dream with the opening of their new Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centre, known as “The Wing”, just outside Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

This two-storey, 35,000 square foot facility is inspired by the shape of a biplane wing and brings the entire Bremont team under one roof (an environmentally friendly, living roof at that!), including CNC machining, watch assembly, servicing and finishing, logistics, sales, and even an on-site boutique.

Having opened earlier this year after a long wait and pandemic-induced delays, “The Wing” is now up and running – let’s take a look inside!

A Tour of Bremont’s “The Wing”

After meeting my friends for lunch in nearby Henley-on-Thames, our tour of The Wing started at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. As we arrived and made our way down the entrance road to the facility, I was immediately struck by the size of the building and the meticulous attention to detail in the design of it. I had of course seen the photos online when the building was opened but as with most things, you can only get a real sense of scale when seeing it in person.

The reception area greeted us with a welcome message and our names on the screen – a nice touch – as we checked in for the tour. Inside the reception is a Williams Racing Formula 1 car and the on-site Bremont boutique, but these would wait until later as we were met by our tour guide and taken upstairs to an open space, entertainment area for welcome refreshments.

This area had a whole bunch of watches on show, wall art, and even an ejection seat from Martin Baker! The view from here looked out over the countryside and the immaculate lawns of the Black Bears Polo Club – apparently one of the best polo facilities in the UK.

We watched an introductory video looking at both the history of Bremont and telling us a little about “The Wing” before we set off to see it in more detail.

First up was a quick stop in the main atrium downstairs, before donning the white coats to make our way into the manufacturing area. Between the atrium and the manufacturing areas was a small “air lock” type corridor with a carpet designed to prevent any errant particles of machined material leaving the area and getting into places they shouldn’t. The assembly and servicing area was deliberately located on the other side of the building, with the same type of “air lock” corridor, too – so to move from the machining area into assembly you have to pass through two separate areas and walk across the facility, thus minimising any risk of those errant particles ending up in unwanted places.

Inside the manufacturing area there were 4 or 5 huge CNC (Computerised Numerical Control) machines, programmed to make specific things based on software/code, used for creating components such as cases. The machine which created the main middle parts of Bremont’s ‘Trip Tick’ cases I found incredibly interesting – these are manufactured from a single piece of steel (or other material) and the machine gradually cuts and shapes this to eventually form the main component of a watch case.

On the display table at the end of the room there was a great demonstration of this, showing the progress from the steel bar (in the centre) through 6 further phases, the last of which is the completed watch case component. This was alongside some trays of various cases and components that you could handle and play with, including being able to see how a crown would rotate an interior bezel as well as other parts of the ‘Trip Tick’ case construction.

After the guide explained the remaining machines and their specific purposes, we left the manufacturing area and returned to the main atrium, where there was an exhibition showcasing the huge amount of special project pieces that Bremont have done over the years, with a significant portion being military projects. There was a plaque on the wall with the various insignia and some examples of the watches adorned with these in the showcases below. This even included an example of the Martin Baker I, an edition of the Martin Baker collection with a red caseband and a yellow and black seconds hand, only available to individuals who have ejected from an aircraft with a Martin Baker ejection seat – not something you see every day.

Given the recent G7 summit in the UK, there was even a special gift on display!

Next up was a stop to learn about the history of British watchmaking, we stopped to admire a timeline on the wall highlighting key moments and innovations. As I mentioned earlier, Bremont’s vision includes investing in watchmaking in Britain, and this segment of the tour was really interesting to look back and see what Britain contributed to the wider world of watchmaking in the 18^th, 19^th and even 20^th Century, from the likes of John Harrison and the Marine Chronometers, Thomas Mudge and the lever escapement, right through to the late Dr. George Daniels and his co-axial escapement.

Talking through each of these milestone contributions to watchmaking, it becomes abundantly clear that this history is something the English brothers are rightly proud of, as we all should be, and it serves to install a deeper understanding of their desire to return these skills to the UK.

Once we passed the timeline we move on to the assembly and servicing areas, where we could see the watchmakers busy at work assembling various pieces at their workstations. The workshop was clearly much larger than Bremont had previously with considerable space available – this serves to show the intent to expand their operations in what is a very exciting time for Bremont.

It was interesting to here as well that a couple of the watchmakers have been through the illustrious WOSTEP school programme in Manchester, sponsored by Bremont. For those who don’t know, WOSTEP is the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program – an internationally recognised qualification in the world of horology and an incredibly competitive program to get in given there are only a handful of places available each year. If a career in watchmaking is something you’re interested in, this is most certainly a great way to go about it.

The last stop before making our way to the on-site boutique was a corridor filled with some of the amazing limited edition watches that Bremont have produced down the years, including everything from the Wright Flyer (each watch contains a piece of cloth from the Wright brothers’ aircraft embedded in the rotor for a real piece of aviation history), through to the Supersonic collection – a testament to the Concorde (each watch contains a ring of aluminium from one of the aircraft built into the caseback).

Having grown up with a huge passion for aviation, these limited and very special editions from Bremont were something I was really excited to see in person. It is not every day you can hold in one hand such an incredibly important piece of aviation history!

Finally, our tour concluded at the on-site boutique, where you’re able to get hands on with pieces from the current Bremont collections with multiple strap options available to choose from, and even some other goodies such as hats and t-shirts as well. Whilst I didn’t buy anything this time, I am quite sure that at some point in my future watch box there will be a Bremont, most likely from the Martin-Baker collection as I think the testing this watch undergoes is an unrivalled piece of engineering!

In Summary

I really did enjoy my day on the Bremont “The Wing” tour, and it was a really great opportunity to see how far the English brothers have come in their pursuit of bringing large scale mechanical watchmaking back to the UK. What struck me as well were the similarities to the watch manufacture tour I went on in Switzerland – of course it is on a different scale given Bremont currently produce around 10,000 pieces annually, but the principle holds true.

There are a few other tricks up their sleeve with plans as to how to use the extra space available that “The Wing” affords the brand; suffice it to say, watch this space!

Finally, the Bremont “The Wing” Tour costs £25 (you can book your tour here), with all proceeds going to the children’s charity the Jon Egging Trust. This charity was set up by the widow of Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, a Red Arrows display pilot who died in a plane crash during the 2011 Bournemouth Air Show. A worthy cause indeed, and an absolutely terrific afternoon!

Congratulations to Nick, Giles, and the entire Bremont team on a wonderful achievement.

If you have any questions, please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.

You might also be interested in:

• Bremont Townhouse 2019
• A Watch Aficionado’s Guide to Geneva – Part 2
• Watch Finishing Techniques
• Watch Stationery and Gift Ideas
• Watch Books, Watch Boxes and more at the Watch Affinity Shop on Amazon (commissions earned)

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