Three underdog watch brands worth investing in

Nomos, Bremont and Habring2 - how our watch columnist fell in love with three under-the-radar brands slowly but surely

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Published: 5:31pm, 27 Oct 2017Updated: 5:31pm, 27 Oct 2017

So I bought Nintendo’s Super NES Classic. Overpaid for it, of course. The video-game consoles are scarce because Nintendo, being Nintendo, misjudged how many people would want one. If you want to escape from the hell that is modern life and retreat into childish happiness and innocence, I recommend getting your own.

OK, there’s no real link between my buying the SNES Classic and watches. But it’s what I’ve been mostly doing with my week so I thought I would share. Seriously, get one.

Anyway, back to watches, and this week I’m going to talk about three independent brands that have won me over despite initial reservations.

We’ll start with Bremont, the “British” brand that started off being “Swiss made” in order to be taken seriously but – after huge investment in people and facilities – is now making its watches just outside London. Like any new brand, Bremont had a few missteps (the less said about its Michael Wong collaboration the better) but since the switch from middling to entirely meh Swiss movements to its own in-house British-made ones, Bremont has jumped up a few rungs on the credibility ladder and now has the technical chops to match its flair for design. The 1918 watch is a good illustration of where Bremont stands today. A wonderfully classic yet on-trend dress watch, the 1918 was made as a tribute to 100 years of the Royal Air Force. Though the aviation theme isn’t immediately obvious, the case back does have a great propeller motif.

The case is sized at 43mm and looks big on the wrist, but all that space means there’s room for the dial to show off the lovely day/night indicator. Other features include date, GMT second time zone, chronograph and telemeter function.