Model # S500/BL
Brand/Model: Bremont Supermarine 500
Movement: Swiss automatic
Material: stainless steel case and rubber strap or
bracelet, depending on model
Complications: day/date display
Price: MSRP around $5,000 USD
Plenty of pictures
follow the review. Click on the pictures
to enlarge.
Bremont would be
classified as a high-end boutique brand, the company being founded by two chaps
in England in 2002 and selling their uniquely designed watches since 2007. Bremont has its watches made in Switzerland
currently, but the company does have plans to begin making the watches in
England at some point in the future.
The company claims
every watch in their standard range is COSC chronometer certified. Sounds good on paper, but unfortunately, this
has not been my experience. More on this
later.
Bremont puts on a
good show with their thoroughly engineered designs that should suit those looking
for diver-style or aviation-influenced pieces.
While definitely pricey, the watches can be found on the second hand
market at considerably less than MSRP, but still beyond the reach of many
collectors.
I was interested in
seeing what the Bremont Supemarine had to offer, since there seems to be a good
deal of enthusiasm for the brand in the WIS world. Truth be told, I was somewhat let down when I
finally added one to my collection. To
me, it just doesn’t feel like a several thousand dollar watch.
The Supermarine
starts with a unique case construction of brushed and polished stainless steel
with a visible black Faraday cage (inner part is soft iron) that gives the
watch its high anti-magnetic properties.
Bremont refers to this three-piece case as ‘Trip Tick’
construction. The case also carries a
patented anti-shock movement mount.
Many a watch
enthusiast sees the stylized case and oohs and aahs over it. It does look pretty cool, but it is also
quite thick, measuring 16.5mm, which is pretty much in Valjoux 7750 territory,
but the Supermarine is not a chronograph.
The case measures
43mm without the screwdown logo signed crown located at the two position. With the crown included, diameter is
46.4mm. The screwdown satin finish caseback
is heavily embossed with a raised and polished Bremont aviation logo.
Lug width is 22mm,
with a helium escape valve (HEV) located in the center on the left side of the
case. The stylized crown guard is held
in place by visible hex head screws, but the guard only protects the lower part
of the crown. Since the crown is located
at the two position and is closer to the upper lug, I guess Bremont thinks this
design will protect the top part of the crown.
The Supermarine is
factory rated for 500 meters of water resistance.
The dial is fairly
detailed, the color on my Supermarine being a dark blue. Other Supermarine models come with black or
silver dials and different colored bezels.
A new Supermarine 2000 has also been recently introduced.
The inner part of
the dial has a circle with a seconds track surrounding vertical striping. Outside this circle the dial is smooth and
encompasses the round luminous applied markers.
A slightly raised chapter ring with minute dots and small arabics at
each five minute mark complete the dial.
A quickset day/date
window is located at the three position with a silver frame surrounding the
window and a divider between the day and date.
The wheels are black on white, with the day reading in both English and
French. Alignment of the wheels inside
the window is just okay, but could be slightly better to my eye, especially at
this price point.
The hour and minute
hands are silver with white inset lume (a welcome change from the garish green
lume used on other Supermarine 500 models).
The seconds hand is a plain silver stick, with no lume, which raises
questions at to the functionality of this watch if it is used for diving.
The name ‘Bremont’
appears in smaller text below the 12 position, while ‘Supermarine’ and
‘500M-1660ft.’ reside above the six position.
A nicely luminous
120-click unidirectional sapphire coated bezel is colored white for the first
20 minutes, then is dark blue for the remainder of the hour. The bezel rotates easily (almost too easily)
and doesn’t have an expensive sound or feel to it. Along with the bezel, the lume quality of the
dial is excellent and glows in the increasingly popular Superluminova blue
color.
A slightly domed
anti-reflective sapphire crystal covers the dial and is recessed a bit from the
inside of the bezel. Examination of the
dial under my 8X loupe reveals a clean build devoid of dust or fingerprints.
Inside the
Supermarine is a modified Swiss Made 25-jewel automatic movement beating at
28,800 bph that hacks and manually winds.
It’s referred to as Bremont Caliber BE-36AE, which I believe is an ETA
base movement. Since the watch has no
display back, I cannot comment on what I hope is some nice decoration, at least
according to the pictures on the Bremont web site. The rotor is stated to be a ‘moulded and
skeletonized decorated rotor.’ Too bad I
can’t appreciate it.
Now back to my
earlier comment about COSC accuracy.
Bremont states all their standard watches are COSC chronometer rated (-4
to +6 seconds daily rate) and my Supermarine runs at +10 seconds per day. Not bad, but definitely not chronometer
spec. It would be a hassle to have to
return the watch to Bremont for a regulation, so I have not done so. Power reserve has been measured at 41.5 hours,
pretty standard stuff.
The winding,
setting and performance of the movement, other than being out of COSC spec has
been okay, but another note, the crown action on this watch is very stiff and it’s
hard to feel the detents for the quickset day/date and for the time setting. I don’t know if this is an anomaly to this
one particular piece or if all their crowns are overly stiff.
My Supermarine is
currently fitted with a blue 22mm aftermarket leather strap which I feel
compliments the blue dial perfectly. The
photos show this strap on the watch, albeit with the OEM signed buckle
installed.
The blue dial
Supermarine comes standard with a ribbed dark blue rubber strap that has molded
and curved ends to mimick a solid end link on a bracelet. While giving the watch a more integrated
appearance, this will also reduce the flexibility of the strap, making it
harder to achieve a good fit if you have a smaller wrist.
Bremont also sells
leather straps and a hefty stainless steel bracelet for the Supermarine as
well.
Presentation is a
rectangular black cardboard box with a lift-off top. Inside is a dark brown leather roll wrap with
a pocket for the watch and a buckle strap to close and secure the roll. It’s a nice way to present this watch.
The big question
is…is the Supermarine worth the price? A
lot of people apparently think so, but I really can’t say that it is, as I
believe this watch is over-rated. While
the case design and finish work is top notch, the bezel action, crown feel and
hand set fall short of a multi-thousand dollar piece. If you want a brand that hardly anyone has
heard of or a nifty looking case style, the Supermarine will do the trick, but
in this case, the ‘Trip-Tick’ design was not enough to ‘tick’ all my boxes for
an upper end diver. An Omega Seamaster
or Planet Ocean is a much better choice for about the same price.
Pros: unique
case design, strong lume, nicely embossed caseback, dark blue dial looks good
Cons: poor
bezel action and sound, stiff crown makes setting difficult, hand set just
average, watch not running at COSC spec., quite pricey
Verdict: an interesting watch that’s not for everybody
due to the price point, the Supermarine has its merits but maybe not enough of
them to win us all over
Thanks for reading
and enjoy the pictures.
Excelsior!
-Marc
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