Last Thursday Bremont watches sponsored a free drinks get-together at the Fish Inn nearby Baselworld. Nick and Giles English were there and a large crowd flowing out onto the sidewalks. Giles introduced me to a self-proclaimed pub “regular,” Bob Bray, who was there with his son. Bob told me he made clocks, related his story of converting from an engineer to clock-making entrepreneur in the nineteen-nineties and invited me to visit his booth at Baselworld.
On Sunday I made good on my promise and visited the Sinclair Harding booth, to be met by Bob and his daughter. What I saw was an amazing collection of complicated clocks, most in skeleton form revealing their movements in full. The flagship piece was the Sinclair Harding H1, an homage piece to the famous John Harrison, the eighteenth century creator of the ship’s chronometer that solved the “longitude problem.” Prior to Harrison’s invention sailors at sea had great difficulty in determining their correct longitude thereby confounding their ability to navigate accurately.
Five years in the making, the first of the eight H1’s produced to date was completed by Bob and his team. So there in Baselworld was a working H1, a device of amazing complexity and beauty. Just the idea of having transported it from home base in England was daunting to me. Bob explained the years of tweaking components of the H1 to achieve the desired accuracy.
In addition to the H1 there new numerous other clocks on display. One in particular, the Rosemary, caught my eye. It can be displayed on a mantle and had a plate at the base that is perfect for engraving, say as a corporate gift or to commemorate a special event.
This post began with Bremont and will end with Bremont. Sinclair Harding has a special relationship with the watch brand. I wonder if you can make a good guess what it is?
To learn more about Sinclair Harding visit their website.