On Jaguars and Watches: The Bremont Jaguar MkIII Chronometer.

The British Underdog?

With a few notable exceptions (ahem, Rolex Explorer, Omega AT), my favorite watches tend to be the underdogs — affordable Hamiltons, obscure German brands like Guinand, and vintage military-issued watches. I love vintage watches for all the same reasons we all do — original designs, brand heritage, charming wrist presence, romantic notions of a life at sea or in the air — but I’m at an age where I have limited patience for the service projects, the worry over fakes and Frankens, and silly vintage prices. Today I’d rather purchase a modern watch, new or used, and do so thoughtfully. The important thing is that the watch speaks to you regardless of its cost or appeal to anyone else.

The Bremont Jaguar MkIII.

It was these underdog kinds of thoughts that brought Bremont to my attention a decade or so ago. But at the time I wasn’t certain about the brand. Was it legit? Or were they just marketing British-ness to geeks like me who already loved British cars, British clothes, and James Bond? These ten or so years later I can answer these questions definitively. The answers are yes, they are legit, quite so in fact, and no, Bremont isn’t conning you by marketing Anglophilia.

Two great British marques, one older, one younger.

Certainly one influence in my thinking has been my friend Jason Heaton. We have more than a few things in common, like old Land Rovers, watches, and Great Lakes travel and adventure, and he’s been an enthusiastic supporter of Bremont since its earliest days. Even still, it took a few years for Jason’s steady drip, drip, drip to erode my natural skepticism. And in that time a secondhand Jaguar XK joined the family fleet, so I naturally had to take another look at Bremont’s Jaguar collaborations. When I saw that Ian Callum had a hand in the design of Bremont’s Jaguar series of watches, and I took note of the care and reverence the English brothers have for Jaguar, my frozen Bremont resistance, which had already begun to thaw, melted away completely.

Water resistance of 100 m means you don’t have to worry about a little rain.

The “Continuation” E-Type Racers.

If you aren’t familiar with Jaguar history, some background may help. The original E-Type road car appeared in 1961, and was an overnight sensation for both its beauty and performance. In 1963, Jaguar announced plans to build 18 “Special GT E-Type cars” for competition. Eighteen serial numbers were set aside, but then for reasons that remain a mystery, Jaguar only completed twelve of those eighteen cars. My guess is that they only had a dozen orders from private customers who were racing enthusiasts, but regardless, over the years the cars have earned fame for their performance and rarity.

One of the original 12 E-Type lightweight racers. One of its siblings sold for in excess of $7M USD in Oct, 2020. Image (c) Hemmings Motor News.

Fast forward five decades to when Jaguar’s head of design, Ian Callum, and the company’s head of special projects, David Fairbairn, hatched a scheme (over pints, as the story goes) to build the final six 1964 GT E-Type racers. The cars ended up with a sticker price of around $1,600,000 in 2015, but one unexpected bonus the buyers received with their brand new 1964 E-Type racer was a very special Bremont watch, designed and assembled just for these cars, replete with a matching serial number.

The Continuation Jaguar E-Type Racer, a MY 1964 car built in 2015. Image (c) MotorTrend magazine.

The original Jaguar E-Type (it was marketed as the XK-E in the US) used gauges designed and manufactured by Smiths Instruments, and this original tachometer served as the inspiration for the watches Bremont supplied to Jaguar for the Continuation E-Type cars. It was the success of these six original Bremont Lightweight E-Type Chronometers that spawned Bremont’s regular collection of four models of vintage Jaguar E-Type-inspired watches. The MkI is the serialized stainless steel version of the original six watches, which were crafted in white gold, and it uses Bremont’s in-house caliber. With its small seconds register at 9 o’clock, it is drop-dead gorgeous, instantly recognizable, and the most expensive in the range. The MkII is the two-register chronograph, produced in both black and white variants. Eye-catching without a doubt, and the bicompax layout readily evokes the 1960’s.

Bremont Jaguar MkI (L) and MkII White (R). Images (c) Bremont.

The Jaguar MkIII and the Smiths Instruments Gauges.

And then there is the subject of this review, the MkIII. Although it lacks the sexy movement of the MkI and the eye candy dial detail of the MkII chronographs, it is in my opinion the purest expression of the Smiths Instruments E-Type design language that inspired the range. It’s also the most affordable, making it the Everyman’s Edition, I suppose, but on the wrist I can tell you that the watch feels very special indeed.

The pure Smiths Instruments E-Type essence of the Jaguar MkIII.

Let’s start with what immediately draws you in, the beautifully produced dial, which is a carefully considered rendering of the original Smiths tach. Where the original gauge is graduated in 100’s of revolutions per minute, the Bremont’s dial is indexed in hours from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock, occupying the same top 240 degrees of the circle as the tach’s rev graduations. And, quite happily, the Smiths gauge has five divisions between its major enumerations of 500 RPM, making each division worth 100 RPM of engine speed and strongly suggesting the minute markers on a watch dial. It’s tempting to think that the original designers of this dial had a watch face in mind, and were perhaps inspired by the minute markings between hour indices on their British-made Smiths Deluxe wrist watch.

The Smiths E-Type 5,500 and 6,000 (top and bottom, respectively) RPM tachometers. Images compliments and (c) Paul Fears Photography.

Depending on the engine and generation of your E-Type, the Smiths tachometer may be calibrated across 5,500, 6,000, or 7,000 RPM. Regardless, the engine speed danger zone is graphically set off in red with a swept radial section starting at either 5,000 or 6,000 RPM. On the Bremont’s dial, the redline area is indicated by a swept section corresponding to 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock. I love this brilliant little detail, and by the way, you can now buy an authentic electronic replacement tach for your original E-Type from Smiths Instruments. Their site also has some fascinating history on these cars.

A Smiths Instruments 7,000 RPM tach in a 6-cylinder E-Type. Image (c) Caricos.com.

The center area of the watch dial is raised above the outer portion, a perfect echo of the tach’s identical detail, and where this part of the tach shows its maker’s name, Smiths, we see the Bremont propeller logo on the watch dial. The icing on the cake here has to be the vintage Jaguar logo reproduced above the watch’s tasteful date window at 6 o’clock, and not to be missed is the tiny hubcap holding the hands onto the movement’s pinion, which is a miniaturized clone of the same piece on the Smiths gauge.

I’m glad Bremont made the choice to honor the Smiths gauge as truly as they did, but the price we pay for this design fidelity is the lack of numbers or graduations in the bottom 120 degrees of the dial. It isn’t up to your best guess between 4 o’clock and 8 o’clock, however, because Bremont’s designers have thoughtfully provided two tiny dots where the watch dial’s 5 and 7 would normally be. They’re tiny, yes, but once you know they’re there and train your eye just a bit, they make time-telling a breeze between these hours. Problem solved through subtly brilliant design.

The stepped dial and floating indicator minutes hand evoke the original gauge’s details.

The minutes hand of the Bremont Jaguar MkIII is a perfect recapitulation of the Smiths tach needle, with only the outermost portion painted white and appearing to float over the sunken graduated area of the dial. Admittedly, this can make it a bit tricky to tell the time at a glance since the minutes hand on a watch is not dancing around and grabbing your attention the way an engine speed indicator does. Yet it would have been wrong to paint the hand completely, so I’m glad Bremont stayed true to the Smiths design here as well. The hands and dial completely lack lume, with the exception of the lollipop of the seconds hand, a choice I found a bit strange. So you won’t be wearing this watch to bed, but you probably aren’t sleeping in your vintage E-Type either.

Thoughtfully executed details in the stepped date window, tiny dot indicators for 5 and 7, and a lumed lollipop.

The tasty details.

The Jaguar MkIII is powered by Bremont’s COSC certified caliber BE-36AE, which is hand-finished and hand-assembled in Bremont’s workshops in England. It is Bremont’s entry level caliber, utilized in many of their watches, and it starts out life as an ETA 2836-2. Mine has been a great timekeeper, and comparable to what you’d find in the same price range competition from Sinn, Grand Seiko, or Omega.

Bremont’s caliber BE-36AE. Image compliments and (c) Hodinkee/James Stacey.

Turning the watch over, we are treated to a large vintage Jaguar logo on a solid caseback covering the movement. The watch, its minimal operation guide, a strap changing tool, a spare rubber strap, COSC certificate, and warranty card come neatly wrapped in a “wallet,” the vinyl of which bears a remarkable resemblance to shell cordovan. This is then sheathed in a tasteful fabric drawstring bag, which in turn lives in a simple cardboard box. Taken as a whole, the kit feels understated, high quality, and refreshingly simple.

The caseback features a prominent retro Jaguar logo.

I was worried the watch might be too big, but the teardrop lugs make the watch wear very flat; it feels like a 40 mm watch on your wrist, belying its 43 mm size. Another case detail I was not expecting is the soft color of the hardened steel. It’s polished, so it has a shine to it, but there’s a subtle softness and tone to it, too, like an overcast November sky. It’s difficult to describe and I didn’t notice it in any pictures of the watch I saw beforehand. However, even despite the bezel’s generous width, a glittery, shiny watch this is not.

Despite the beefy bezel of polished stainless steel, the watch is not overly reflective or shiny.

The final detail of note, but just one of many that did me in, has to be the crown. It is ever so finely engraved with the tread pattern of the Dunlop cross ply tire that the E-Type was originally equipped with, and on its end the vintage Jaguar logo makes a third appearance. I love this little Easter Egg, which could be easily missed.

A hidden gem is the vintage Jaguar logo set under translucent material on the end of the crown.

Making the case for the Bremont Jaguar MkIII.

I have never been particularly taken with cross-marketed products, especially when they make me feel like I’m being had (hello, No Time To Die Seamaster). They’re usually too contrived and fail to integrate my interests in the constituent brands in a new and unique way. But this is not true of the Bremont Jaguar collaboration watches, the origin of which is an incredible story of one amazing and historic British brand finishing something it started decades before, and seeking out an equally amazing, younger British partner to make a truly unique and useful complementary product. These watches honor industrial art and celebrate timelessly good design, well made things, and yes, a certain British-ness.

There are only six Continuation E-Type racers, seven if you count the “Car Zero” sales prototype, which sold at auction in October, 2020 for over $1.7M, complete with its mated Bremont wrist chronometer. As probability goes, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever own one. But with over 72,500 road-going E-Types produced from 1961 to 1975 you could easily find one of those, although you’d better budget a solid eighty grand for a good specimen.

The jaguar XK Coupe.

Alternatively, you could buy yourself a nice, modern secondhand Jag for about half what you’d spend on a new, cross-marketed LL Bean Subaru or Eddie Bauer Explorer and spend a fraction of the money you just saved on a Bremont Jaguar watch to go with it. In my world, this just makes sense.

Relaxing at the end of the day with the Bremont Jaguar MkIII.

A final note — if, like me, you don’t have a local Bremont dealer, I suggest you get in touch with Andy at Continental Diamond in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is great to work with, and loves to chat watches with fellow enthusiasts.

This concludes my review of the Bremont Jaguar MkIII. As always, I love to hear from other enthusiasts and welcome your comments and factual corrections. Thanks for reading!