This is the Bremont Supermarine 500M, it’s one of the newer offerings from the highly-regarded British watchmaker. Each one is made in Britain at Bremont’s state-of-the-art 35,000 sq ft facility.
The Supermarine 500M has a 43mm case machined from 904L stainless steel, a domed sapphire crystal, a 25 jewel BB64AH automatic movement, and it’s water-resistant to an impressive 500 meters (50 ATM or 1,640 ft).
The Supermarine 500M has a 43mm case machined from 904L stainless steel, a domed sapphire crystal, a 25 jewel BB64AH automatic movement, and it’s water-resistant to an impressive 500 meters (50 ATM or 1,640 ft).
History Speedrun: Bremont Watches
Bremont was founded in 2002 by brothers Nick and Giles English, two men who grew up in the workshop of their father, Euan English. English was an ex-RAF pilot with a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering who was passionate about mechanical timepieces.
In March of 1995, Nick and Euan were involved in an accident while flying a 1942 WWII Harvard aircraft. Euan was killed, and Nick broke over 30 bones. After Nick’s recovery, the brothers resolved to dedicate their lives to making beautifully engineered mechanical devices in honor of their Dad.
The brand’s name came from a chance encounter in the late 1990s, when the brothers were forced to make an emergency landing in a French farmer’s field while flying their 1930s biplane. The farmer, who was a wartime pilot and gifted engineer surrounded by half-restored clocks, took them in with great hospitality.
This friendly French farmer’s name was Antoine Bremont, and the English brothers would later name the company after him out of respect.
From the outset, Bremont was headquartered in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, with a mission to make high-quality pilot’s watches and maybe even reinvigorate the formerly bustling world of British watchmaking.
Early on, Bremont developed its patented Trip-Tick case – this was a three-piece construction with a hardened central barrel treated to 2,000 Vickers hardness, roughly five times harder than standard stainless steel. This became one of the brand’s key engineering signatures.
One of Bremont’s biggest breakthrough partnerships came in 2007 when Martin-Baker, the world’s leading ejection seat manufacturer, approached Bremont to build an aviation watch capable of surviving live ejection testing.
The resulting MBI model, launched for sale in 2009, was subjected to high G-forces, extreme temperature swings, and violent vibration. The MBI remains exclusively available to pilots who have ejected using a Martin-Baker seat, each one is engraved with the wearer’s ejection number. The MBII, available to all, followed and became one of Bremont’s most popular models.
This is the Bremont Supermarine 500M, it’s one of the newer offerings from the highly-regarded British watchmaker. Each one is made in England at Bremont’s state-of-the-art 35,000 sq ft facility.
The BWC/01 was Bremont’s first proprietary movement, it was developed in partnership with La Joux-Perret using a combination of Swiss and British parts and engineering.
In 2021, the company opened “The Wing,” a purpose-built 35,000 sq ft manufacturing and technology center in Henley-on-Thames, and debuted the ENG300 movement series – this was the first mechanical watch movement manufactured at scale on British soil in over 50 years, since Smiths ceased production in the early 1970s. Based on the K1 calibre from Swiss firm THE+, Bremont bought the full IP and re-engineered 80% of the movement in-house.
The Bremont Supermarine 500M
The Supermarine 500m is part of the latest chapter in Bremont’s professional dive watch series, each one is built around a 43mm case machined from 904L stainless steel – this is the same corrosion-resistant alloy used in many aerospace and marine applications.
The case profile has been slimmed down compared to earlier Supermarine models, with a lug-to-lug measurement of 50mm and a 13mm depth, while integrated crown and bezel guards have been added to offer protection without any unnecessary bulk.
Water resistance is rated to 500 meters (50 ATM or 1,640 ft), backed by a screw-down crown, an automatic helium escape valve, and a unidirectional rotating bezel with a white ceramic insert housed in a knurled 904L steel surround. The domed sapphire crystal up top is both anti-reflective and scratch-resistant.
The Polar White dial has a three-dimensional wave pattern said to be inspired by the ocean’s surface, with indexes filled with blue-light Super-LumiNova for excellent low-light legibility. The polished nickel-plated sword hands are also lumed, and a date window sits at 3 o’clock. A black printed minutes track rings the dial edge.
The watch is powered by the BB64AH automatic movement, this is a 25 jewel calibre running at 28,800 bph (4Hz) with a Glucydur balance wheel, Anachron balance spring, and Nivaflex mainspring, with a power reserve of 56 hours.
The case profile has been slimmed down compared to earlier Supermarine models, with a lug-to-lug measurement of 50mm and a 13mm depth, while integrated crown and bezel guards have been added to offer protection without any unnecessary bulk.
This version of the Supermarine 500M comes with a black rubber strap, though Bremont also offers the Supermarine 500m on a quick-release stainless steel bracelet, or a NATO fabric strap.
The watch is now being offered for sale directly from Bremont on their official online store here.
Images courtesy of Bremont
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