BREMONT. Nick English Giles English BREMONT B-1

Transcription

1 B-1 MARINE CLOCK

2 6 12 BREMONT Until the advent of air transport, the sea was the only way of reaching the British Isles. Maritime history has therefore played a very significant part in shaping the lives of the British people. Navigation at sea is as critical as navigation in the air, and in both cases a reliable timepiece is essential As a British watch company we have always felt the influence of John Harrison and what he single-handedly managed to achieve in the world of horology and maritime history. As a testament to his achievements and as a result of our love for clocks and the sea, we are proud to have created this unique clock that is designed and built entirely in England, the Bremont B-1. With each clock being handmade and customised to client s requirements the B-1 will only be built in very limited numbers. Nick English Giles English BREMONT B-1

3 BREMONT MARINE CLOCK Bremont has created a modern take on a form that goes back over 300 years, though the functions could communicate their purposes immediately to any navigator from the 1700s. Bremont is an English company, and we were guided by the English chronometers of the past. The Bremont B-1 will; tell the time locally, and at home. And the time of a trip of up to 90 days, by days, hours and months. To ensure the reliability of the clock and its ability to track long intervals, fully-wound, it will run for at least 40 days. A power reserve indicator (state of wind) can be found on the dial with the timepiece also showing GMT and the date. The B-1 movement uses a classic English-lever escapement and a twin fusee housed in a water-resistant case with a diameter of 30cm. MADE IN ENGLAND BREMONT B-1

4 BREMONT MARINE CLOCK B-1 will be produced in very limited numbers. They will be built to order at a rate of approximately one a month. It will be offered with hardware for wall mounting or table display, and finishes can be customised to match a craft s interior. Prices will be offered on application, determined by each client s specific requirements. BREMONT B-1

5 SPECIFICATION MOVEMENT Classic English design escapement hand wound via built-in winding crank. Twin fusee balanced motive power Harrison-type roller bearing, ball-race, jewels for motive power, train, escapement and balance POWER RESERVE 40 days minimum FUNCTIONS Time of day (local) in hours, minutes, seconds Time of day (home) Greenwich Mean Time Trip or voyage time (days & hours) Date Power reserve (state of wind) DIAL & HANDS Indicates all functions, as above. Hand-made, silvered and blued to the highest quality. Dial customisation on request. Locking fixing to supplied bulkhead security plate. Desk mount security plate optional CASE Water resistant. customisation on request DIAMETER 300mm WEIGHT Typically 16kg actual weight. Dependent on customer s choice of case materials BREMONT B-1

6 TIME KEEPING AT SEA

7 TIME KEEPING AT SEA Watershed moments in the history of timekeeping have had no greater impact than that of the quest for longitude. Yorkshireman John Harrison transformed portable clocks, from relatively vague and unreliable indicators of the passage of time, into instruments of exceptional precision. We can only marvel at how such accuracy was achieved 250 years ago. To inspire the watchmakers of the day, while rival European navies were vying for maritime supremacy, Parliament passed the Longitude Act of 1714, which offered a prize of 20,000 ( 2.9m in today s currency) to the inventor of a practical method for determining longitude at sea with an accuracy of half a degree. Understanding why the loss of lives and ships at sea was so great is illustrated by a simple calculation: at the Equator, inaccuracy of only a second corresponds to an error of 463 meters, or kilometers for a minute. THE STORY BREMONT

8 In 1735, Harrison ( ) presented the first of a series of timepieces he would refine for the remainder of his life. His son took the fourth prototype on a test voyage to Jamaica in 1761, the watch lost only four seconds during the 81 days of the voyage. Sadly, Harrison s rivals for the prize conspired against him, the inventor only received his due when King George III intervened. The monarch tested the fifth prototype himself, finding it to be accurate to within one third of one second per day. Harrison eventually received part of the prize when he was in his eighties. Harrison s inventions would influence devices that would improve navigation for the next century and a half, until superseded by electronics. THE STORY BREMONT

9 There cannot be an ocean-going craft on the seas today without satellite-fed electronics to providing pin-point locations, these are the state of the art replacements for marine chronometers. But there s something reassuring about a nonelectrical, wholly mechanical device, at the very least as a back-up. And like the revival of the fountain pen, and indeed the continued desirability of mechanical watches, traditional marine chronometers maintain their appeal. While the manufacture of ships clocks has diminished during the modern, electronic age, demand has been fuelled by a number of occurrences. Not least is the revival of the mechanical wristwatch, which runs concurrently with the global passion for vintage yachts and other period craft. Bremont has responded to this with a new Ship s Clock made entirely in England, the first all-new mechanical device of its time for the 21st Century. While the term chronometer now has a specific technical application to modern wristwatches regarding a series of official tests (all Bremont watches are chronometer certified), the definition was slightly different when defining ships clocks. The term, then, is flexible, but for timekeeping at sea, a chronometer was often described as a massive clock mounted on gimbals in a protective box. Such a timepiece would be referred to constantly by the ship s captain or officers and the readings noted in a ship s log. THE STORY BREMONT

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