Wallpaper* Handmade: The Products

Compass and watch, by Bremont

Brothers Giles and Nick English, co-founders of watchmaker Bremont, and designers at the company, were inspired, as they so often are, by the world of aviation when it came to designing this pocket watch and compass for us. The compass takes its look from the kind of directional aid fitted to Second World War Spitfire fighter planes (Giles is the proud owner of one of the aircraft). The case, made of gnarled, orange aluminium with a steel rim, is inspired by the highly engineered parts in a Martin-Baker aircraft ejector seat. 'With the compass watch we wanted to make a lovely pocket watch with an extra element,' says Giles. 'Martin-Baker is a wonderful British company that makes most of the world's ejector seats and its success is based on great engineering. For us, aviation design is classic engineered design.' Making a compass work beside a steel watch movement without the latter's magnetic field deflecting the compass' accuracy was,in itself, an engineering feat for Bremont.

Photograph by Andy Barter

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