As part of its partnership with Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), Bremont has chosen to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Lancaster Bomber first seeing service in 1942, and the subsequent Dambusters Raid in 1943, paying tribute to this iconic Second World War aircraft and courageous mission with the release of a new Limited Edition. On 17th May 1943, 133 brave aircrew in 19 Lancaster Bombers performed one of most dangerous bombing raids of the Second World War, destroying the Mohne and Eder dams and damaging the Sorpe dam in the Ruhr Valley of Germany.

The 232 piece limited edition nods to the speed at which the Lancaster had to fly (232mph), at precisely 60ft in order to successfully bounce the bomb with it spinning at exactly 500rpm when dropped. Only then would the bomb be able to bounce nimbly across the water, avoid the torpedo nets, and then sink at the right spot to detonate at the base of the dam.

Turning the watch over reveals a closed case back with an elegant engraving of the Avro Lancaster and the heraldic badge of the 617 squadron, formed in 1943 at RAF Scampton, specifically for the Dambusters Raid using the Barnes Wallis-designed upkeep ‘bouncing bomb’. Rather poignantly the case back also features each of the call signs of the 8 Lancaster Bombers that never returned, namely: ‘Sugar’, ‘Charlie’, ‘Apple’, ‘Zebra’, ‘Baker’, ‘King’, ‘Easy’ and ‘Mother’.

Uniquely, each Bremont Dambuster timepiece will be offered with an elegant set of silver Avro Lancaster Cufflinks incorporating aluminium from the original airframe of Lancaster B.VII NX611 ‘Just Jane’. Removed during recent restoration of Just Jane’s rudder assembly, the aircraft has been held in an environmentally controlled storage facility waiting for a project worthy of this aviation icon. The recovered aluminium has been hand stripped to remove the original protective coating of primer, melted down and recast with pure silver.

The watch itself combines a 42mm round shaped hardened stainless steel case and black Sailcloth strap. It has a black analogue dial with Super-LumiNova coated hands, a date display, chronograph sub-dials and a red chronograph hand, all of which is protected beneath domed scratch resistant sapphire crystal glass with an anti-reflective coating. Power is generated by the Modified Calibre 13 1/4’’’ BE-51AE automatic chronometer movement with 27 jewels and a power reserve of up to 48 hours. This model also has a water resistance of up to 100 metres.