Bremont and Martin Baker

Bremont’s history as a watchmaker is deeply intertwined with the history of modern aviation, and since the brand was founded in 2002, its watches have found their way onto the wrists of both military and civilian aviators. The company has also created a number of watches for specific aviation units, and they all have in common the durability, legibility, and all-around toughness necessary for service in the often rough and tumble environment of military aviation, where cockpits are cramped, and rough handling is the norm. One of Bremont’s most important partnerships, however, is not with a specific unit or with a specific group of aviators — it’s with Martin Baker, the company responsible for the first widely produced, technically and commercially successful ejection seat. 

The partnership began in 2009, when the first MB (for Martin Baker) series of watches were released. There were two types of MB watches — one was for pilots only, and not just any pilot; the Martin Baker MBI was only available then, and now, to pilots who have actually had to eject from an aircraft (the number of lives saved by Martin Baker seats, since the company began producing them after World War II, is over seven thousand and counting; the first in-flight test ejections took place from modified Gloster Meteors, the first and only Allied jet fighter to see combat during the war). At the same time, Martin Baker also released the MBII, which was and is available to the general public (cosmetically different from the MBI, but technically identical).  

Ejection is a violent event. An ejection seat is essentially a miniature rocket ship, and it’s essential for the seat to accelerate very rapidly, so that the pilot can clear the aircraft without being struck by any of the tailfins. Depending on the altitude and speed of the aircraft at the moment the pilot pulls the ejection seat handle, they may experience up to 20 g’s or even more. Bremont, in collaboration with Martin Baker, came up with an exhaustive and quite brutal testing regimen for the original design, which included subjecting the watch to vibrations that simulated up to 30 years of use in the cockpit, as well as deceleration tests using a crash test dummy in the MFOS, or multifunction operator’s seat, used in rotary wing aircraft like the Blackhawk, and live ejection tests in an actual ejection seat. The tests also included exposure to extreme temperatures, as well as to the corrosive salt fog and moisture environment found on an aircraft carrier flight deck.  

Since the first watches debuted in 2009, many dozens of unit watches have been produced, including watches for Tornado and F-14 pilots.

All Martin Baker watches have Bremont’s three-piece Trip-Tick case, which is built in three parts. The top consists of the bezel and lugs; then there’s a case middle (knurled in the case of the MB watches) and finally, the screw down caseback. The latest Martin Baker watch is the Altitude MB Meteor Orange Barrel, which has a knurled orange case middle (something of a signature design feature for the Martin Baker watches). MB watches all have an inner rotating bidirectional timing bezel, and all have a soft iron inner case and dial for protection against magnetic fields. 

Pilot’s watches are very varied in purpose and design, but the Martin Baker watches from Bremont are about as authentic — and thoroughly tested — as it gets.