I want to buy an English watch,

[Swede123]

And I will spend up to £3.5k.

I nearly bought, ordered and it arrived into stock at the Cheltenham stockist, the Bremont Supermarine when it came out but with a house purchase happening I didn't go through with it.

But what else is out there ? Not Christopher Ward, just not keen. Must be able to be worn all the time, mechanical ideally, swimming definitely, metal bracelet.

Have owned most Rolex s/s models, Air King, DateJust, Submariner, Sea Dweller. Omega Seamaster and Speedmaster, Zenith Rainbow, not TAG, never had a Breitling but now I want English.

Any ideas please ?

[grumbledoak]

Do Accurist make anything that expensive?

[Mja300]

Not sure I'd want any English watch at 3.5k

Edited by Mja300 on Thursday 29th October 19:27

Edited by Mja300 on Thursday 29th October 19:28

[hilly10]

There is Graham, but they are a bit off the wall. I think for an everyday quality watch it comes back to Bremont

[Voldemort]

http://great-british-watch.co.uk/british-watchmaki...

[woots787]

Some good stuff on the link above. A while ago Robert Loomes posted on here a good list too:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I like the idea of a UK made watch but looks like my best bet at the moment is keeping an eye on eBay for a good Smiths.

[lostkiwi]

Harold Pinchbeck?
http://www.haroldpinchbeck.co.uk/the-watches/45209...

Or one of the top of the range Christopher Wards?

[ecain63]

Bremont. English and excellent quality.

[lostkiwi]

ecain63 said:

Bremont. English and excellent quality.

And Giles is an interesting guy to talk to if you ever get to meet him!

[tertius]

What makes a watch English?

[mikeveal]

Where does Lorne hail from. UK definitely, but North of the wall?

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk

I expect he'll be along soon.

[Tanguero]

I dont know if they have anything in your price range but http://www.robertloomes.com/ is about as English as they come.

[bobbybee]

ecain63 said:

Bremont. English and excellent quality.

Rubbish
English brand, masses of marketing hype and the watches have swiss made on the dial (well did have) this means that 60% of the value of the watch was manufactured, assembled and inspected in Switzerland.
All they have changed is the wording on the dial to say London, they are not made in the UK

[bobbybee]

mikeveal said:

Where does Lorne hail from. UK definitely, but North of the wall?

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk

I expect he'll be along soon.

And again, Swiss ETA movements, the Valjoux 7750, so not english at all really

[mikeveal]

bobbybee said:

ecain63 said:

Bremont. English and excellent quality.

Rubbish
English brand, masses of marketing hype and the watches have swiss made on the dial (well did have) this means that 60% of the value of the watch was manufactured, assembled and inspected in Switzerland.
All they have changed is the wording on the dial to say London, they are not made in the UK

bobbybee said:

mikeveal said:

Where does Lorne hail from. UK definitely, but North of the wall?

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk

I expect he'll be along soon.

And again, Swiss ETA movements, the Valjoux 7750, so not english at all really

Yes, I know.
And I have faith that the OP is not only perfectly capable of making his own decision on what defines an "English" watch for him, but also of assessing each of the suggestions here.
The OP asked for suggestions, all you appear to have contributed is to rubbish other peoples posts. I'm not sure that's a contribution of any value and its certainly got my back up.

I'm always happy to learn from someone contributing positively, but I'm not seeing that here today.

[geezerbutler]

Not sure you're going to have much luck at that price-point. I can't think of anything outside of Roger Smith, Peter Roberts and Robert Loomes.

I own a Schofield and a Bremont. They have both now moved a lot more of the production work to the UK. My Schofield is actually branded as Made in Germany on the dial as that was the most honest thing to put on it at the time as that was the source of the largest percentage of the contents of the final product. The current range is much more 'home-grown'. However, both companies still use Swiss movements and as far as I can tell will continue to do so.

I still think you should buy a watch because you like it, not because of the country of manufacture

Oh, and I will big-up Lorne as well, as I think the Field Engineer is excellent value....

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk/home/field-en...

Edited by geezerbutler on Friday 30th October 14:00

[Lorne]

mikeveal said:

Where does Lorne hail from. UK definitely, but North of the wall?

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk

I expect he'll be along soon.

Well, and only since you ask;

I'm originally from Devon, Lorna Doone country and hence being called Lorne was quite a challenge at school. After university I moved to Aberdeen to get away from the childish humour but found Lorne is the name of a sausage up there (luckily a big sausage, but annoyingly a square sausage), so I moved to Holland where they are more relaxed about most things. Unfortunately the Dutch police were using Porsche 911's at the time, which could outrun my Lotus Esprit. After the threat that the police would confiscate my car and not give it back, ever, if they caught me speeding again I moved to London.

London has been my 'base of operations' for the last 20 odd years and is where I build my watches, so YES, a British brand! Also very reasonably price, best chronograph in the world, wonderful after-sales service, iconic design, etc, etc

Just to keep the world travels up though, after several years commuting to and from central Africa, I'm now commuting to the middle east.

[Lorne]

bobbybee said:

mikeveal said:

Where does Lorne hail from. UK definitely, but North of the wall?

http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk

I expect he'll be along soon.

And again, Swiss ETA movements, the Valjoux 7750, so not english at all really

When building a watch, just like building a car, you want to use the very best engine possible. Is the Aerial Atom 'not really British at all' because it's engine is Japanese? What about the legendary AC Cobra, or Ford GT40; both running US V8's? Bentley and it's W12 from VW? etc, etc.

[lostkiwi]

If you don't mind a swiss movement in an English case try https://pinionwatches.com/

Their bronze watches look gorgeous... The Chronograph is rather lovely too.

[Swede123]

The purpose of my initial post was to discover if there were additional brands to those I knew about. Loren and Pinion are two that I had missed. Thank you.