Since founding Bremont in 2002, brothers Nick and Giles English have been working towards restoring Britain to its former position as a high-volume manufacturer of fully home-grown watches. Large-scale UK watchmaking came to an end when Smiths closed its factories in Wales (they once produced up to 500,000 mechanical movements a year), as a result of changing fashions and the arrival of inexpensive, battery-powered movements.

The English brothers haven’t set quite such an ambitious target, but they have ensured that “The Wing”, Bremont’s two-year-old, 35,000-sq ft manufacturing and technology centre in Henley-on-Thames, is “future proofed” to a capacity of up to 50,000 finished timepieces.

But reaching that goal is going to take money, and lots of it. Which is why the brothers have welcomed outside investment into the business from the word go. And Bremont has kicked off 2023 with its biggest-ever financial boost, a cash injection of £48.4m ($59m), some of it from existing lead investor Hellcat Acquisitions LP and some from a new backer, Bill Ackman, the renowned hedge-fund manager and American billionaire behind Pershing Square Capital Management.

According to Giles, Ackman has been a fan of the brand since buying one of its America’s Cup sailing watches in 2017 and subsequently reinforced his enthusiasm for Bremont with multiple purchases during visits to London.

‘We met him last summer and discovered that his enthusiasm for Bremont comes from his own love of British engineering, aviation, adventure and the military – all the pillars on which the brand has been built,’ Giles explains. ‘The meeting coincided with an existing investor deciding to exit, so the timing was ideal. And the money Bill has put in combined with a further sum from Hellcat have given us the biggest cash investment the company’s ever had.’

But, while the money gives Bremont a turbo boost in enabling it to buy more equipment and recruit more staff, it is not the silver bullet that will allow it to quadruple its current production figure of 10,000 watches annually. ‘True watchmaking is very capital intensive,’ Giles expands. ‘If we were to outsource manufacturing, it would cost considerably less to grow the company, but our aim has always been to establish Bremont as a genuine watchmaker, not just a company that assembles parts made by other people. It’s exciting to have Bill on board as an investor, because he understands our philosophy and doesn’t want to change our way of doing things. He just wants us to get on with it. Frankly, it’s quite easy to get through $50m in this business by going down some wrong alleys. But we don’t want to stay small, which means we have to take some risks.’

As part of its global expansion plan, Giles says Bremont intends to add to its existing tally of 13 boutiques around the world, with new openings in locations including America, Australia and Singapore, as well as further UK outlets in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

Right now, however, the company is focusing on meeting strong demand for the Fury, Audley and Supernova watches, which it launched at the end of last year as the first series-production Bremonts to be powered by the brand’s ENG300 in-house movement. The Supernova – Bremont’s first integrated bracelet model – has proved especially popular. But, he says, the team is having to work hard to keep up with orders. ‘The case is quite complex and it takes a great deal of time to get the quality of finish that we’re happy with – a situation not helped by the current supply-chain problems.’

Despite such challenges, Bremont managed to report a 28 percent growth in revenue during its most recent financial year. And, with an array of unique and interesting models set for launch in the spring – including a piece inspired by one of the most evocative aircraft in British aviation history – its growing number of fans have a lot to look forward to. Although when it comes to Bremont’s future plans, we get the feeling even the sky might not be the limit…

bremont.com