When British watchmaker Bremont set about testing its new in-house movement, the ENG300 Series, it wanted to ensure the delicate mechanism would survive the brutal forces of being ejected from a fighter jet.
The company worked with Martin-Baker and its fighter jet ejection seat testing programme to create a movement tough enough for the job. During that testing, Bremont built a prototype watch to house the movement – a prototype that has evolved to become a production watch in its own right.
Called the MB Viper, the new timepiece features a Grade 5 titanium and anodised aluminium case with a striking orange bezel, crisp white dial and chevron decorated hands designed to look like the pull handles used to fire the ejector seat of a military fighter jet.
Bremont’s automatic ENG352 movement has 22 jewels and an impressive 65 hours of power reserve. It features rhodium plated bridges and a gold plated automatic bridge, plus a rhodium plated, solid tungsten rotor that is decorated with fine graining and engraving.
The company says how test equipment housing the movement was subjected to live ejection testing, zoom temperature climb testing, extreme temperature endurance, high altitude testing and salt fog testing. The watch itself features an anti-shock movement mount to protect the mechanism from shocks and jolts, and the case is carbon coated and employs a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.
The case measures 43.5mm across and is 10.8mm thick. It has a screw-down crown at the three o’clock position, 100 metres of water resistance and an aluminium front secured with four screws. The dial counts from five to 60 instead of one to 12, and there’s Super-LumiNova that shines green in low light on the hour markers and hands.
Bremont supplies the MB Viper with a pair of canvas straps in black and orange. The watch is priced at £5,495 and is available to order now, with each individually hand-assembled upon order, with a delivery time of between six and eight weeks.
