There had been some discussion on the net regarding the case finish of Bremont watches. I spoke to Giles and asked for the Layman's explanation.

This what he sent back. All very cool!

Hi Alistair

In simple terms a satin finish on a watch will scratch very very easily that is why
no does it. We wanted the case to have a subtle un shiny effect to it. 
Naturally not
wanting to have our watches scratch easily through research we found a company which has a treatment that is uses on 
turbine blades and F1 car components.

Each case is heat-treated and defused with carbon and then bombarded with electrons
that give the surface a dramatically increased hardness of 2000 vickers. 

I can get a more technical spec if you wish.

All the best

Giles
Giles English
Bremont Watch Company

So do you want the full specification?

Charley Boorman's ALT1-Z from 'The Long Way Down' series.

Al

Very interesting and thanks for the post. I heard that the limited edition Urwerk 103 used TiAlN-coated steel to get to 3800 (!) Vickers, but this sounds quite different to the titanium aluminium nitrade coating that they used. I'm not a materials scientist, but very interested to see how they did it (although won't pretend to understand it!)

Mat

As a post script, the AR glass that Urwerk used also apparently had a hardness rating of 4000. I wonder what the Bremont has...? Anyone got a spare diamond-tipped tool and a 30kg weight to test it???!?