Bremont ALT-1C on Vintage Strap, Customer service story

[FlyPenFly]

The Bremont ALT-1C cream dial is the longest lasting watch I've owned. In a constant frenzy of flipping watches, this has had the most staying power in my collection. I've owned several Bremonts and I also had the black dial version with silver subdials, in my direct first hand experience, all the ALT-1Cs are beautiful. The cream dial version is notable in that it was the first Bremont I lusted after.

It's the watch that I wore to Icelandic volcanoes, to the very top of the Swiss Alps, around all sorts of clubs and lounges in New York City, and small vineyards in the Lorraine area of France. It's the watch that gets the most compliments and comments from the small number of women who notice such things. (It only comes second to the IWC Laureus 3717 I used to own in people stopping me to ask about my watch.)

It's the watch that will accompany me to the rainforests of Costa Rica this month and the valleys of New Zealand later this year. It's become my travel companion and I prefer to wear it on adventures aboard moreso than my other watches until I become one of those people who pack an extra watch when they travel.

To get on with it though, I recently had a bit of mail from the UK.




I emailed Bremont recently because my old deployment that was sold to me with the watch used refused to stay pinned down. The part that pins into the strap refused to stay down due to wear (maybe the previous owner thought that's how you take a deployment watch off?).

I promptly received an email back asking for an address and they offered to send me a new deployment. Nice. Keep in mind, I'm not the original buyer nor is the watch still under warranty. That's customer service.



On my email back to them, I also inquired about the new Bremont Vintage strap. I saw some pictures of it elsewhere and it seemed like a fantastic strap and I wanted one for my cream dial ALT-1C. Unfortunately the regular length version seemed out of stock for a while now so I wanted to know when they were expecting them back in. I asked about it and they offered to send me one as well as the new deployment, yay. I think part of it was just a thank you in granting them use of my photos in a new user photo section they're building. This was something I granted a while back before I inquired about the Vintage strap. Just a very generous gesture and something I appreciated because as some of you know, I'm a little bit of a Bremont fanboy.





I also plan to pick up a Tan Velcro strap they make for use in snorkeling and more physically punishing activities.

Then came a slight hiccup. The new deployment they sent me was unfortunately defective and of a new design. This one wouldn't stay clasp locked for some reason. From what I remember reading, quality deployments are one of the hardest things to manufacture reliably. So whatever third party vendor they were using seems to have not gotten it completely right.

This was disappointing but after examine my old broken one a bit more, I cave-manned it into working. Mostly, I just really wanted to put on the vintage strap and I didn't have any 20mm buckles around.



Somehow, it was a perfect fix. I wrenched the sides that housed the part that locks the pin and it worked. I went a little too far in my first attempt and had to open it up a bit. After a bit of adjustment, now it works perfectly locking down hard but still opening up when I need it to. Every once in a while, I can fix something mechanical and my testes grow just a little bit more.

After my Costa Rica trip, I plan to send the watch in for a new bezel. The watch works perfectly despite the torture the previous owner seems to have inflicted on it. It's really great Bremont agrees to do small part repairs. I know when I asked Richemont or Swatch group to make spot repairs to the IWC Portuguese Chronograph or Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Sport, they flatly refused and said I needed a complete service. I understand the business case of why that is desirable but I appreciate Bremont's stance on making sure it can deliver to customers specific requests. Just seems so much more luxurious than being given a canned answer according to a manual made at corporate HQ.


Anyways, on to the pictures.

[TexZan]

Great story, great pics! I've had similar experiences with their customer service. It is BY FAR the best I've seen. The vintage is likely my next strap, too.