THE IMMORTALS – The Bremont MBIII is a pilot’s watch with one hell of a backstory

D.C. Hannay

Stories. All my favourite watches in my collection have one. More than how much you paid for something, or who you know at an authorised dealer, they’re the most interesting part of watch collecting. The one from your significant other. Your grandfather’s. The one that never left your wrist on that cross-country trip, even when you fell out of your kayak on the Colorado River. And the Bremont Martin-Baker MBIII has one hell of a backstory.

 

If you’re not familiar with Bremont, they have a great origin story, too. Brothers Nick and Giles English, both pilots and vintage aviation enthusiasts, were flying their 1930s biplane over rural France when they ran into engine troubles and bad weather, and had to put it down in a farmer’s field. That farmer, Antoine Bremont, happened to be a former military pilot and engineer, and when the brothers were starting their own watchmaking company in 2002, they named it in his honour.

Bremont has grown by leaps and bounds since their early days, having partnered with brands like Jaguar, Rolls-Royce Aerospace, and Williams Racing, as well as being the exclusive luxury watch provider to the UK’s Ministry of Defence. Aviation has always been a central theme for Bremont, and the brand has created limited editions exclusively for personnel from more than 400 military units worldwide.

Now here’s where we get to the story behind the MBIII. The Martin-Baker MBIII is the third iteration of a very limited model, and one that can’t be purchased by just anyone. Martin-Baker is the British aviation company that supplies the majority of the world’s Air Forces with fighter ejection-seat technology, and they approached Bremont to create an aviation watch in 2007. Their design brief? The watch needed to be able to withstand the same shock, vibration, and g-forces as the ejection seats. It took two years of development, but the MBI was the result. It remains one of the most exclusive items in the Bremont catalogue, as you can only order your own if you yourself have ejected from an aircraft using a Martin-Baker. That’s a pretty small club, and it’s oddly comforting that there’s a watch that Ed Sheeran and Jay-Z can’t buy.

Fortunately for the rest of us mortals, the MBII and MBIII are the “civilian” versions, with the MBII a time-only model, and the MBIII adding a GMT complication, perfect for an aviation-themed watch. And the MBIII is a definite contender for those seeking a versatile all-rounder timepiece.

Let’s go to the tale of the tape. The 43mm diameter case is constructed using Bremont’s Trip-Tick three-piece design, with a hardened stainless-steel bezel section, a DLC-coated textured body section in contrasting bronze, orange, or anthracite colours, and a solid stainless caseback. Lug width is 22mm, ensuring strap monster status, and water resistance is good for 100 metres. Of note: the case also features a soft iron Faraday inner cage to protect the movement from magnetism, handy if you’re in a military environment.

Moving on to the black dial, you’ll find excellent visibility (as befits a pilot’s watch) with contrasting bright white printed and Super-LumiNova lumed markers and sword hands, with red-tipped second and GMT hands. The second hand also features a cool Easter egg, a trademark of the Martin-Baker models: The yellow and black-striped ‘ejection seat pull’ counterweight. A small date window sits at 3, and the dial text is all business. The bidirectional inner bezel plots 24 hour divisions along the outside of the dial, controlled by a second crown. The overall look is very much ‘flight instrument’, and would look right at home in the cockpit. All this is protected by a domed sapphire crystal.

The shock-mounted GMT movement is a modified version of Bremont’s BE-93-2AE automatic chronometer, ISO 3159 certified, with a 42-hour reserve, and a customised skeleton rotor. Bremont has invested heavily in British manufacturing, opening a new headquarters, ‘The Wing’, in 2021, and movements are a big part of that push.

Strap options include contrast-stitched leather or a solid stainless-steel bracelet. Leather is the traditional pilot’s watch look, but there’s really no wrong choice.

Between the bulletproof built-in-Britain construction, the travel-ready GMT movement, classic military looks, and a truly unique origin story, the Bremont Martin-Baker III certainly qualifies as a modern-day classic, and would be a versatile and handsome addition to any collection.