BREMONT
U-2
The 43mm U-2/51-JET takes design cues from a military project
commissioned by the RAF’s 100 Squadron and their Hawk T1 Jet aircraft. The
timepiece represents a new, much stealthier, look for the collection. In
addition to the newly blackened steel case with black barrel, the new watch
offers no more day window, no more marks around the inner bezel, and no
dial text other than ‘Bremont.’ In addition, its dial lume is the same vintage
‘51’ lume originally found on the Bremont Limited Edition P-51. That lume
also lights a new feature: a triangle at 12. Turning the watch over reveals an
exhibition case back showing the automatic movement through tinted black
smoked glass. Price: $5,395.
BREMONT
AIRCO AND ALT-1C
A new addition to the AIRCO collection, which debuted last year, includes
the introduction of a new model called Mach 3. Named after the Aircraft
Manufacturing Company Limited, one of the first British military aircraft
manufacturers, the AIRCO also had a vintage feel upon its arrival last year.
This year’s 40mm Mach3 extends that sensation with a dial of RAF blue,
while two-white dialed variants –each with a different dial layout–offer a red
seconds hand. Price: $3,895.
The two new ALT-1C designs retain the collection’s dual-eyed chronograph
dial but break from the core range with new applied indexes replacing Arabic
numerals, creating a more contemporary look. The white-dialed model will
appeal particularly to those who enjoy panda dials and both models now are
accented with an internal black rail bezel. These new ALT1-C/BL and ALT1-C/
WH-BK models again utilize the Valjoux 7750-based chronometer
chronograph movement, which will be more visible through the enlarged
exhibition caseback. Price: $6,495.
ORIS
BIG CROWN POINTER DATE
80TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Oris celebrates the eightieth birthday of one of its best-known models, the Big Crown Pointer Date, by offering a
special green-dialed, bronze-cased version called the Oris Big Crown Pointer Date 80th Anniversary Edition.
The anniversary piece builds on Oris’s already successful integration of bronze-cased watches during the past
few years. The new model offers a 40mm bronze case with the watch’s well-known fluted bezel and large crown, all
framing a particularly handsome green dial. Oris reminds us that this case, like all its bronze cases, will patinate
naturally as the watch is worn, giving each watch a personalized character. Inside is Oris’s Sellita-based automatic
Caliber 754.
Oris debuted the aviation watch in 1938 with an oversized crown so that gloved airmen could easily adjust it. Oris
also added what was then an unusual complication – a date indicated by a central pointer hand.
The watch became one of Oris’s best sellers. Production of the Big Crown Pointer Date continued into the 1960s,
when Oris became among the largest watchmaking companies, at one time employing 800 people and producing
1.2 million watches and clocks a year.
The Big Crown Pointer Date was also a critical design as Oris was recovering from the so-called quartz crisis of
the 1970s, when low-priced quartz watches dominated sales and drove many makers of mechanical watches to
bankruptcy. Sales of the watch were instrumental to Oris as it recovered in the late 1980s, according to Oris
Co-CEO Rolf Studer. Price: $2,000.
WINTER 2019 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 125