Yesterday, I had the honour and privilege of being invited to go to BREMONTs' new facility "The Wing".
I was there on official business and am considered as a friend of the brand by the Military and Special Projects Team and thus was lucky enough to be given a preview tour.
See here for the 'The Wing': Live Launch of Bremont's New Headquarters https://youtu.be/YCtOZ3C--m0 to provide context.
Upon arrival and proceeding down the drive, you notice that grounds have been landscaped but aren't finished yet, there still in the process and seeding and planting, but your eyes are drawn to the very impressive modern, high-tech building with a lot of glass frontage - which it looks very impressive!
I parked up and proceeded to reception.
At this point I should point out that the facility, although up and running, is not complete and ready for visitor tours yet (ready at the end of this month), so some of my commentary is what I was told and understood.
Upon entering the reception, it's light, airy and spacious. Looking around, all I could say was wow!
In front of you there's a large curved reception desk (mirroring the Wing in shape). There are various things on display and a large flat screen which, I believe, will run BREMONT advertising campaigns.
To left is the new boutique (by appointment only) with various cabinets displaying the latest models and a small client seating area where you can try on and make a purchase as required.
I was greeted and taken upstairs to a lounge area. This is the large glass fronted part of the Wing that overlooks the Polo fields and surrounding countryside - beautiful. Currently it's not complete but there are a few sofas, chairs, tables and displays scattered about and there's a Bar - that could be dangerous!
I believe that this area is going to be used as a Visitors arrival area where a large flat screen TV will provide a recorded video message from Nick and Giles introducing you to BREMONT. It's also going to be used for new launch events.
I was then taken back downstairs and given a tour of the facility.
There's another large meeting area with some sofas, chairs, tables and displays scattered about.
This is the area where the red E-Type bonnet is up on display.
There is also a couple of meeting rooms as well and, often to one side is the open plan office where the staff are.
They also have a display cabinet housing a lot of the Special and Military projects that they have done over the years - fascinating to see how certain customisations work on a completed watch.
Moving on, I went into the manufacturing area - this houses all the CNC and engraving machines. It was really interesting, actually quite mind boggling, to see the various processes of how a piece of raw stainless steel is turned into a case, case back, bezel, etc.
Having this facility on-site means a vast improvement with the logistics both from a discussion point of view to the quality control side of things.
Then I headed back upstairs.
The corridors have pictures of the brand ambassadors (https://www.bremont.com/pages/about-ambassadors) and some famous faces (e.g. Tom Cruise; Ronnie Wood, etc.) who are friends of the brand and own BREMONT watches.
In some of the corridors you also have display cabinets which show some of the watches that BREMONT have produced over the years, including some very special and limited editions - it's actually very much like a museum type experience.
I also saw the super high-tech assembly and service areas - these are sealed areas and purpose built to be white rooms to avoid dust and contamination. However, these have windows, so you are able to peer in to see the watchmakers at work. When seeing this you can really understand the cost of servicing - this is a highly skilled and time consuming operation and, basically, you get your watch back as new.
I also believe that, for the tour, one of the watchmakers will actually come out and provide a 15 minute overview of what they do.
The final part of upstairs is a staff area where they can sit and relax or have their lunch - so much better than the old Lodge where there were many disruptions because the meeting rooms where housed there as well.
I then headed back downstairs to the meeting area for a brief chat before heading home.
I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank BREMONT for the invitation and tour - it was truly an awesome experience!