Bremont : From pilots to watchmakers

It may not described this company in full, but this is what the brothers who currently own the Britain wristwatch company told us during the launch of their new collection in Royale Chulan Hotel. You may say that I am going to harp again about another posh event that I went to but this one has an interesting business story.

The family who owns the company has the surname English. Quite a name, huh? The brothers even made jokes about their name being unacceptable in certain countries. Nick and Giles were both in Malaysia and mingled with us on that day.

If you go to their website, Bremont.com, you will see there are a lot of planes in the pictures. It seemed that they have a lot of history with planes. They were pilots and their father actually died while piloting a plane. One of the brother was in it (which I'm not sure which one) and the one who was holding the microphone then joked that the one in the plane that day is not quite right today. That is the life changing event that changed the course of their company. I wonder what event in my life would make me do such a thing. Do you know what is yours?

Joke aside, they changed the direction of the company and they became watchmakers. They don't really have a long history of watchmaking but they do put them under a stringent test. They strapped it on a pilot and eject the guy from a plane. The watch is supposed to withstand that force.

The video that they showed that night had John Boorman who rode with Ewan McGregor around the world on a motorbike (quite a biography there which my wife and I love). That is another life changing event which changed how Ewan and John decided to take a lifelong passion into a journey. They did another journey across Africa after, which book I still have to read.

And get this. One of their watch is not for sale for whatever price. You will be offered the watch if you earned it. And leave it to my business partner who went to one of the brother and asked him that night, with a glint in her eye "What should I do to get one of those limited edition watch?". He simply answered "Wear a jumpsuit and do what that pilot in the video did. Being ejected from a cockpit of a jetfighter plane!".

I think I can do that too....

The watch in a display case

The watches on the models that night