I first set eyes on the U-2/51-Jet (from here on I will refer to it as the Jet) at the 2018 Bremont Townhouse event. Alas, I fell in love with it immediately. After wandering around the wonderful townhouse and exploring the various rooms I paid a deposit and began the ‘impatient-child-waiting-for-christmas’ like wait until it would be delivered.
It turned up mid-July in the end and I went to the Royal Exchange Bremont boutique to collect it the day after spending some time at the Bremont tent at the Flying Legends airshow at Duxford.
The Jet comes in Bremont’s typical packaging – a very nicely crafted leather watch case – and is shipped with a black leather strap and a black rubber strap, both of which suit the stealthy black look of the watch excellently. The watch is also supplied with a matching signed DLC buckle.
Obviously being the owner of a Jet, I am somewhat biased on the looks but I think the simple dial looks fantastic. The colour choice of the tea stain coloured numerals and markers combines with the mesmerising blued handset and red highlights just works so incredibly well.
The design for this watch was inspired from a military project designed for the RAF’s 100 squadron, which was commissioned to celebrate their centenary. The black finish to complement the livery of their Hawk T1 jet aircraft. The base for the watch is Bremont’s handsome U-2 which was designed for the squadron that operates the Spy plane of the same designation out of Beale in California. As a result, the timepiece was built to handle some extreme altitudes and has been used on extremely high altitude missions of 80,000+ feet and -50 degrees Centigrade (-58 Fahrenheit).
The barrel of the case is a knurled and there are two crowns, at 2 and 4 o’clock for setting the time and rotating the inner bezel respectively. These crowns are signed with Bremont’s propeller logo (at 2 o’clock) and a black and silver RAF roundel at 4 o’clock. Turning the inner bezel is a deeply satisfying experience. Bremont’s roto-click bezel offers a very positive and solid feeling click.
The movement is listed as BE-36AE which is a modified ETA 2836-2 with 38 hour power reserve. The modified Bremont rotor can be seen through the smoked sapphire case back (another stealthy feature) and is COSC certified.
To sum up, this time piece is a fairly unique looking and stunningly beautiful watch that can be worn with many different strap options. The case is incredibly durable as expected from Bremont and the DLC coating is lasting well with only a couple of marks where I have managed to catch it on something metal. If you like the idea of supporting British watchmaking and have a personal affinity with aviation in any way, Bremont is certainly worth a look as there is bound to be something that you would find attractive in their range.
I have owned this piece for over a year now and worn it a great deal and still love to stare at it as much as I did the day I picked it up. To say I am happy with this purchase is an understatement!
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