Bromances are big at the moment – Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal promoting All of Us Strangers; Austin Butler and Timothée Chalamet on the Dune: Part Two press tour. And now, the watch-world equivalent – Bremont CEO Davide Cerrato and George Bamford, whose alliance has produced a seriously desirable Supermarine GMT.

‘We first met outside Basel [Baselworld watch fair],’ explains Bamford. ‘Since then, we’ve stayed in touch. I’ve showed him ideas; during Covid he was the first person to agree to a video for my GB Talks podcast, and now I’m honoured to be working with him.’

The result is a limited-to-500, lumed-up version of the Supermarine GMT, Cerrato’s first launch after he became CEO in May 2023. ‘An interest in collaborations is a way of sharing creativity,’ Cerrato says.

According to Cerrato, one of the starting points for this watch was the fact that this year the aurora borealis will be the brightest it has been in the past 20 years.

It was Bamford who wanted to work his magic on a GMT. ‘I love two time zones,’ he says. ‘We went through the whole range and kept coming back to this because it is the ultimate tool watch.’

Named Aurora, after the lights that inspired the colour of the lume, this GMT takes 2023’s Supermarine and ups the ante. The lume, which is on the bezel, dial and hands, is astonishingly bright. This element is augmented by the sapphire crystal bezel and the layered California-style (Roman numerals on the top half, Arabic on the bottom) dial. Rather than filling the numerals with lume, a luminescent disc is put underneath, with the indices as apertures on top, through which the colour shines. The 43mm case is matt black DLC-coated steel and the strap is nubuck leather.

It wasn’t just the colour of the northern lights that inspired the name of this Bremont x Bamford collaboration, however. ‘The word “aurora” means the beginning of the day in Italian,’ says Cerrato. ‘And this watch marks a new beginning in the next chapter of Bremont.’

bremont.com; bamfordlondon.com