Giles and I have always had a fascination with beautiful dive watches. In a way, it is one of the ultimate tools an active person can wear, especially if it is totally mechanical. Although in the air is where we spend the vast majority of our time, recreational diving has always been a passion of ours and I think this only adds to our curiosity.
The Bremont Supermarine range has become the diving watch of choice for many of the explorers and divers that Bremont works with due to the immense durability associated with its build. Bremont also has a heavy connection to military personnel such as Clearance Divers, Special Forces Units and the Royal Marines. In addition to working with professional diving fraternities such as the North Sea Deep Sea Divers Certified has meant that Bremont has achieved an enviable pedigree in this sector over the years and we are incredibly proud to have created a product which military and dive professionals alike can rely on. We voluntarily develop our dive watches to ISO 6425 standards because a true diver’s watch has to adhere to some hard and fast design and build specific diving specifications. Some of these include:
A UNIDIRECTIONAL BEZEL WITH 5 MINUTE ELAPSED MINUTE MARKINGS This is a key design feature in all Bremont dive watches. The material used in these bezels is not aluminium which can scratch easily, but ceramic or sapphire for immense durability.
SHOCK RESISTANCE Bremont’s dive watches tested to over 500m have our own developed ‘Anti Shock’ movement mount integrated into the watch case. This technology was developed in the MB range of watches alongside the British ejection seat pioneer, Martin-Baker, and can be found in all Bremont S500 and S2000 models.
Co-Founders Nick and Giles’ designs are inspired by British heritage and engineering as well as their own interests and passions
CHEMICAL RESISTANCE We test this to prove that the watch effectively doesn’t rust if left in saltwater for 24 hours. Bremont cases have been tested well beyond this time with some serious sea-water and salt-fog tests in environmental testing facilities. The case of the Supermarine is made from the very corrosion resistant 316L stainless steel.
CLARITY Distinguishable minute markings on the watch face are a key design requisite on most of the Supermarine range. Another requirement is good readability at 25cm in total darkness – we pride ourselves on readability. There are so many new and exciting luminous paints that can be used nowadays, many made by a company called ‘Super-LumiNova®’ and these far exceed anything that was around even 20 years ago.
WATCH STRAP A watch strap that can withstand a force of 200N.
MAGNETIC RESISTANCE Many of our Supermarine models (unless they have an open crystal case back for aesthetic reasons like the S501) have a built in soft-iron Faraday cage surrounding the movement. This cage helps shield the mechanical watch movement against electrostatic and magnetic forces.
WATER RESISTANCE The ISO standards defines a diver’s watch as having a water resistance to a minimum of 100m depth. All of
Bremont’s Supermarine watches are tested far beyond this limit. The Supermarine S500 for example, with the solid case back, although it has 500m written on the dial, is tested to over 1400m, which is quite a margin. For the professional diving community that may spend time saturation diving at great depths, a helium release valve is fitted to our S500 and S2000 ranges to prevent the crystal being blown out by an internal pressure build up, which is caused by helium that has seeped into the watch case.
All Bremont watch cases use Bremont Trip-Tick® construction. A robust design that offers many design variations
THE NEW SUPERMARINE S500
The first diving watch Bremont ever produced was the 43mm Supermarine 500 which was introduced back in 2009. Three new Supermarine models are now available, the S500 in black and blue, as well as the S501.
To find your nearest store visit: www.bremont.com/pages/store-locator
