BRM Luxury Men’s Wristwatches

Quality Not Quantity at BRM

The success of BRM watches will not hinge on mass production. “Quality not quantity, is our goal,” Bernard Richards proudly proclaims. For him, the true sign of luxury lies in “technical skills and perfection in all stages of manufacture.” All major operations needed for making a wristwatch—such as encasing, assembling, setting, and polishing—are performed by hand in his little factory, one that looks much like an automotive garage located outside Paris in Magny-sur-Vexin. None of the components found in a BRM watch are off-the-rack. These are all custom-designed and made, fitting perfectly into his automotive ideal of the wristwatch.

Handmade BRM Chronographes

“Instead of just soldering lugs to the case, we manufacture each element separately, and then screw them onto the case,” Richards explains. “Thus it is possible to utilize different materials and colors.” One example of this is black or gray titanium cases with polished stainless steel lugs—a striking combination most manufacturers simply cannot achieve.

Richards is a self-taught designer who does not follow any certain school of thought or philosophy, setting out in 2002 to completely dedicate his energies to the wristwatch. The charming Frenchman sees things and is immediately inspired by them. “1 never learned designing formally—in fact, I was a very bad boy in school. I just do what comes into my head. And it often comes quickly,” he reveals. This, in fact, also extends to working with his hands, as Richards makes all his own prototypes as well. The unusual timepieces he has introduced during the last five years were mainly based on the tried and trusted Valjoux 7750— the mechanical chronograph movement most often utilized in watch production. Richards has set lofty goals for himself and his young venture, for it is fully his intention to set up a true manufacture in his French factory. His Birotor model is thus outfitted with an autonomous caliber fully manufactured and conceived on French soil.

BRM – Unique Materials for a One-of-a-Kind Luxury Wristwatch

This movement is as unique as the materials that have gone into attaining its visuals. BRM calls its four new shock absorbers mounted on conical springs its Isolastic system. This not only provides a soft bed for the movement, but looks ultra-machinelike. The movement’s plates and bridges are crafted in Arcap, while the rotors are made of Fortale and tantalum.
The twin rotors, found at 12 and 6 o’clock, are mounted on double rows of ceramic bearings that require no lubrication. Their lighter Arcap structure allows them to wind more efficiently, and to top it all off, they function using a differential that was developed from automobile technology.

The R50 T is a power-reserve movement that also utilizes the company’s Isolastic system technology. Shaped like an engine with a cylinder on the left side, it is held in place by three triangles of carbon fiber and fiberglass. A spring placed upon each of these triangles absorbs any vibration inside the case.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Richards and his seven-man-strong watchmaker team, led by the highly experienced Jean-Paul Crabbe, are now leading the automotive-oriented brand down an extremely prestigious path, culminating in the brand’s very own carbon fiber and Arcap bridges, BRM’s very own Isolastic system, a rotor crafted in aluminum and tantalum, and a tourbillon that makes one revolution in an unusual time period of one and a half minutes. BRM limits these to fifty pieces.

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