Bremont Watch Co is committed to nurturing watch-making skills in the UK; as part of this objective, the company already manufactures components — including its three-part case (consisting of bezel, central body and case) — at its manufacturing facility near Henley-on-Thames.

Moreover, it intends to develop the skills and capability to make as many parts as possible itself in the UK.

The assembly and maintenance of every watch is carried out by Bremont, which has extremely high quality standards and checks the accuracy of each watch over a 15-day period and over a temperature range from -40°C to +40°C, to ensure that it achieves a daily accuracy between -4 and +6sec.

This stringent testing regime is well within the parameters of ‘Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres’.

Bremont has built partnerships that reflect its aviation roots and its association with sailing, exploring, motor-sport, ‘high-adrenalin’ activities and travel.

Most notable among these its the company’s association with the British School of Watchmaking and aircraft ejection-seat manufacturer Martin Baker.

Bremont’s limited-edition MB1 watches — supplied exclusively to pilots who have ejected from aircraft using a Martin Baker ejection seat — are designed for a rigorous environment, with altitude tests to 100,000ft, salt fog and humidity tests, ejection tests for high g forces, and vibration tests to simulate the 30-year life of a helicopter.

Bremont says its aspirations for a revival of UK watch-making, together with the precision and skills necessary to achieve this, meant that it was looking for a machine tool partner with similar values to its own.

Belmont recognised DMG Mori as a leader in the design and manufacture of advanced precision machine tools and turn-key solutions that not only supplies CNC machinery to companies making high-value components in a wide variety of industry sectors but also “champions UK manufacturing” through its support of organisations such as the AMRC, the AFRC and the MTC.

Moreover DMG Mori UK devotes resources to encouraging and inspiring young engineers through partnerships with universities and colleges; the company is also a sponsor of World Skills.

Steve Finn, managing director of Coventry-based DMG Mori UK (www.uk.dmgmori.com), says: “The UK manufacturing sector is a relatively mature one, and there is little opportunity to work with emerging industries.

“We are therefore very proud to have been selected as Bremont’s machine tool partner; we are also impressed with Bremont’s approach to UK watch manufacturing.”

Machine portfolio

Bremont has a number of DMG Mori machines in its workshop. These include an NTX 1000 HSC turn-mill centre, an NLX 2000/500 turning centre and an EcoMill 600 vertical machining centre.

Furthermore, Bremont will be taking delivery of another NTX 1000 at the end of the year.

Tim Parker, the company’s production manager, said: “We chose DMG Mori machines for their accuracy and reliability.

“We are working to tolerances of 3-5µm, manufacturing very intricate parts for which quality and precision are paramount.”

The NTX 1000 HSC is used for machining the bezel, while the NLX 2000/500 produces the central body and the case back. Machining the bezel requires the full capabilities of the NTX 1000 HSC, cutting bar-fed 316L stainless steel.

It includes tapping M1.0 holes and producing 0.2mm-wide grooves to produce a complete part (ready for grinding) in one operation, using both the main spindle and the sub-spindle.

Parts are 100% inspected for visual defects and critical feature dimensions.

Mr Parker said: “We have 60 and 45mm-diameter 316L bar as stock material, and we machine away about 70% of the material when producing our thin complex parts.

“The machines’ rigidity helps us to achieve good tool life, despite the small sizes we use, while their flexibility — along with the three-part construction of our watch case — makes it easy to change production to suit different models and develop manufacturing methods for new designs and limited-edition watches.

“DMG Mori worked very closely with us to develop the cutting technology we needed and helped to build the various machining tool-paths required.

“The company also helped to select the best cutters for our watch cases.”

Batch quantities of individual parts are small, so the rapid change-over between different models of watch offered by the DMG Mori machines is essential.

Mr Parker said: “We run 24hr each day Monday to Friday, with a permanent night shift — plus we have the option of working over the weekend, if necessary.

“Material and tooling are held as consignment stock, so we always have replacement and special tools available on site.

To operate this numbers of hours means that machine reliability is very important, so we have a service contract with DMG Mori to ensure reliability — and that the machines are in peak condition.

Moreover, when we moved our manufacturing from our old Silverstone facilities to our new ones near Henley-on-Thames, DMG Mori worked with us by fitting around an intense schedule of works to get us running again within just two weeks.”

Bremont’s investment in the second NTX 1000 HSC will help the company increase the available capacity for its watch production, while also providing extra machining time to develop the manufacture of more watch components in house.

“Working in partnership with DMG Mori to create metal-cutting processes has helped us to improve our own skills, enabling our engineers to carry out the developments required to make even more complex parts in-house and work towards our goal of manufacturing watch movements in their entirety in the UK.”