Fifty years ago, a commercial jet began flying across the Atlantic at speeds nearly double the speed of sound. The Concorde Jet was not the future of aviation; it was the promise of the Space Age realized in the present. The jet’s unmistakable shape immediately became an icon of the late 20th Century, its promise of faster and faster travel a catalyst for the bold optimism of the era. In just about three hours, one could make it from New York to London at an altitude so high one could see the curvature of the Earth. Amazingly, the Concorde made its last journey on October 24th, 2003, such that we all now fly, rather mundanely, at subsonic speeds.
Bremont, a British watch company with its roots in aviation, has joined up with British Airways to celebrate the Concorde with a limited edition chronometer they call Supersonic. Impressively, Bremont was able to obtain aluminum from the Concorde Jet named Alpha Bravo, and this metal is inserted as a ring around the movement, visible through the rear sapphire crystal.

This 43-millimeter watch uses Bremont’s 3-piece “triptych” case, a clever design that’s become one of the brand’s signatures. At 14.56 millimeters thick, The Supersonic is not small, but, because the lugs are stout and downward sloping, it is quite comfortable nonetheless.