“Purpose-built” is a term thrown around without much thought to its true definition, and all fancily worded marketing aside, it doesn’t necessarily apply to the majority of wristwatches with which it’s associated. These days, dive watches that are rated to 300m will probably never see depths even a tenth that deep, and chronographs will rarely be engaged to measure much of anything at all.
Things are a bit different at Bremont. Here is a company that has been outfitting explorers, soldiers, divers, pilots, and true adventurers since 2002, founded by two brothers who are themselves pilots of both contemporary and vintage aircrafts. Worn & Wound stopped by the Bremont Townhouse held in downtown Manhattan to check out some of the new offerings from the brand for 2018.
Supermarine Endurance
Co-developed with Bremont ambassador and polar explorer Ben Saunders, the new Supermarine Endurance ($6,395) accompanied Saunders on his solo west-to-east traverse of Antarctica in November, 2017. Named in homage to Shackleton’s famous vessel and in honor of the route Saunders took on his journey, the Endurance is a limited run of 300 pieces featuring Bremont’s 43mm Trip-Tick three-piece case construction in titanium with an exhibition case back, domed AR-coated sapphire crystal, anti-shock movement mount, rotating compass bezel, Super-LumiNova luminous coating, 500m water resistance, modified caliber BE-93-2AE automatic C.O.S.C.-certified chronometer movement, and a GMT hand to aid in navigation. While not my favorite of the new Bremont offerings given its size, height, and the fact that I simply detest the color orange (sorry, orange), the Endurance seems hefty enough to survive a nuclear strike, which certainly says something about how the brand over-engineers its watches.