I am still counting up the times Burberry uses the terms “heritage, tradition(al), craftsmanship, innovative,” and other similar adjectives brands commonly use when describing their new creations. In fact, most of the Burberry Britain watch press release is actually just a list of adjectives. Even when they describe the timepiece itself they use mostly adjectives to describe it. Consider me impressed – this document ought to receive some type of award for its incredibly elegant lack of substance (however it does have a fully operational set of tech specs). Allow me to share with you a few select passages if I may:

“The Britain marries our heritage and functional design values with modernity and innovation, creating a watch that is as elegant as it is relaxed.”

“A celebration of the British inspirations behind the global brand,
The Britain marries craftsmanship and heritage with modernity and innovation”

“It all comes from this iconic timeless piece of our
heritage which is the foundation of the brand.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMeImHhR9Og]

What Burberry does however make clear is that the Britain watch is meant to be influenced by their iconic trench coat design. For those young people who don’t know, Burberry is actually a coat company. The rest of that stuff came later. The design of the watches is a bit trench warfare looking, but you’ll need to decide for yourself if you see a lot in common with the trench coat. I personally don’t own one so I am not the best judge of their similarities.

Do you know what similarities I do see in the watch? There is a surprisingly pronounced similarity to Mr. Gerald Genta’s iconic octagonal case designs for watches such as the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. If Burberry is talking about that era of their heritage then I start to see their point… mm-hmm. That is OK, borrow a bit from some popular high-end watches. Nothing wrong with that. I am always down for a little eight-sided case design myself.

Until now, most Burberry watches have been strictly fashion-friendly, mostly quartz watches with department store residences. The Britain introduces a mostly mechanical family with more serious cuts as an entry into the high-end. I can see Burberry having aspirations to join a legion of watch-toting fashion brands (in one form or another) to be more like Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Zegna, and others who have their name on pricey timepieces. Overall I actually like the look of these Britain timepieces and would wear most of them, but do feel that the pricing is rather optimistic.

To start, there are four main Burberry Britain timepieces. The commercial flagship model (but not likely to be the best seller) is the distinctive looking Britain Automatic Power Reserve watch. It comes in a sizable 47mm wide steel case that has an IP coated gunmetal finish. What, no PVD? The case design looks cool and has a exhibition caseback with a view of the mechanical movement. In fact, all of the mechanical Britain watches do. The choice of strap looks good with the aged finishing of the case. Burberry calls it “trench color alligator.” Which ironically doesn’t sound very luxury at all even though they mean the coats. While you’ve never seen the dial before, you’ve seen dials like this dial before. It is a military style dial with gunmetal tones and enough lume for night viewing. Inside the Burberry Britain Automatic Power Reserve is a Swiss Soprod caliber 9040 automatic movement with the time, date and power reserve indicator.

Other models include a 47mm wide quartz chronograph model, two three-hand automatics in a 43mm wide case, and a 38mm wide quartz model for women with 124 diamonds on the bezel. Each of the watches contain Swiss movements. The Britain Chronograph comes in a cool black case but will alienate a lot of us watch nerds with its Ronda quartz chronograph movement. Personally it wouldn’t bother me assuming the price was right – which it is most likely not.

My favorite models in the Burberry Britain collection are the 43m wide Britain Automatic models. With three-hand Swiss ETA 2824 automatic movements and clean looking dials, these are rather handsome timepieces on their own. The brushed steel cases come matched with a strap or fine looking metal bracelet. My top pick is the Britain Automatic with a black dial matched to the steel bracelet. A nice piece and I don’t even care that it is a fashion watch. Prices for the watches start at $1,795 for the Burberry Britain Automatic (which isn’t too bad actually). That goes up to a very lofty $3,995 for the Britain Automatic Power Reserve, and $4,995 for the Britain Quartz because of the diamonds.

Tech Specs from Burberry:

Britain POWER RESERVE AUTOMATIC Ref: BBY1000
Design: Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date, power reserve
Movement: Soprod 9040
Swiss Made self-winding mechanical three-hand movement, 40-hour power reserve, 24 jewels, 28,800 vph, Incabloc shock protection system
Movement components: 97
Case: Distinct rounded octagonal case. Stainless steel with gunmetal ionised plating. Finished with fine vertical brushing and beveled edge. Distinct bolts in stainless steel with black ionised plating fasten bezel to the lugs. 32 components. Water resistant up to 5 ATM (165 feet/50 metres)
Case back: Rounded octagonal case back screwed down by hand. Three-piece construction. Sculpted curved case back, inspired by antique British pocket watches. Transparent case back with double curved sapphire crystal for insight into the movement. Custom rotor with circular Geneva Stripes finishing, featuring engraved Burberry logo in black
Dial: Dial in matte gunmetal. Trench-coloured hour and minute indicators. Matte black hands with Super Luminova in custom trench colour. Date at 3 o’clock. Sub-dial indicates the power reserve. Dial features applied Burberry logo and Automatic signature. Anti-reflective, scratch and shock-resistant sapphire crystal protects dial from the elements
Strap and clasp:  Alligator strap in custom designed trench colour with soft domed padding. Tonal hand stitching in trench
22-20 mm width. Ardillon buckle with combination of brushed and polished surfaces
Dimensions: 47 mm case

Britain AUTOMATIC Ref: BBY1201
Design: Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
Movement: ETA 2824. Swiss Made self-winding mechanical three-hand movement. Three-hand movement with date function. 28,800 vph. 25 jewels. Incabloc shock protection system
Case: Distinct rounded octagonal case. Stainless steel finished with fine vertical brushing and polished beveled edge. Distinct bolts in brushed stainless steel and polished beveled edge fasten bezel to the lugs. 32 components. Water resistant up to 5 ATM (165 feet/50 metres)
Case back: Rounded octagonal case back screwed down by hand. Three-piece construction. Sculpted curved case back, inspired by antique British pocket watches. Stainless steel finished with fine vertical brushing,. Transparent case back with double curved sapphire crystal for insight into the movement. Custom rotor with circular Geneva Stripes finishing, featuring engraved. Burberry logo in black
Dial: Dial in iconic trench colour. Date at 3 o’clock. Dial features applied Burberry logo and Automatic signature. Hour and minute indicators in fine-brushed, faceted silver stainless steel. Super luminova in off-white. Hands in fine brushed stainless steel with Super Luminova in off-white. Anti-reflective, scratch and shock-resistant sapphire crystal protects dial from the. elements
Strap and clasp: Alligator strap in dark brown with soft domed padding. Tonal hand stitching in dark brown. 20-18 mm width. Ardillon buckle with combination of brushed and polished surfaces
Dimensions: 43 mm case

Britain AUTOMATIC Ref. BBY1203
Design: Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
Movement: ETA 2824. Swiss Made self-winding mechanical three-hand movement. Three-hand movement with date function. 28,800 vph. 25 jewels. Incabloc shock protection system
Case: Distinct rounded octagonal case. Stainless steel finished with fine vertical brushing and polished beveled edge. Distinct bolts in brushed stainless steel and polished beveled edge fasten bezel to the lugs. 32 components. Water resistant up to 5 ATM (165 feet/50 metres)
Case back: Rounded octagonal case back screwed down by hand. Three-piece construction. Sculpted curved case back, inspired by antique British pocket watches. Stainless steel finished with fine vertical brushing,. Transparent case back with double curved sapphire crystal for insight into the movement. Custom rotor with circular Geneva Stripes finishing, featuring engraved Burberry logo in black
Dial: Dial in matte black. Date at 3 o’clock. Dial features applied Burberry logo and Automatic signature. Hour and minute indicators in fine-brushed, faceted silver stainless steel. Hands in fine brushed stainless steel with Super Luminova in off-white. Anti-reflective, scratch and shock-resistant sapphire crystal protects dial from the elements
Strap and clasp: Stainless steel (316L) bracelet with H-links. Combination of brushed links with hand polished centre links reflect light and emphasise. the faceted structure of the bracelet. Deployment buckle (triple folding clasp) with pushers
Dimensions:43 mm case

Britain CHRONOGRAPH Ref. BBY1103
Design: Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, date
Movement: Ronda 5040.D Swiss Made movement
Case: Distinct rounded octagonal case. Bezel in stainless steel with black ionised plating, finished with fine vertical brushing and polished beveled edge. Distinct bolts in brushed stainless steel and polished beveled edge fasten bezel to the lugs. 32 components. Water resistant up to 10 ATM (330 feet/100 metres)
Case back: Rounded octagonal case back in stainless steel screwed down by hand. Three-piece construction. Sculpted curved case back, inspired by antique British pocket watches
Dial: Dial in matte black. Date at 4 o’clock. Dial features applied Burberry logo. Hour and minute indicators in fine-brushed, faceted silver stainless steel. Hands in fine brushed stainless steel with Super Luminova in off-white. Anti-reflective, scratch and shock-resistant sapphire. crystal protects dial from the elements
Strap and clasp: Rubberised alligator strap in matte black with soft domed padding. Tonal hand stitching in black. Ardillon buckle with combination of brushed and polished surfaces
Dimensions: 47 mm case

Britain QUARTZ Ref. BBY1400
Design: Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds
Movement: Ronda 703 Swiss Made Quartz three hand movement
Case: Distinct rounded octagonal case. Bezel in polished stainless steel. Full diamond setting. 124 diamonds (1.1mm, full cut, VS G-H colour, 0.68 carats). Bezel in stainless steel finished with fine vertical brushing and polished beveled edge. Distinct bolts in brushed stainless steel and polished beveled edge fasten bezel to the lugs. 27 components. Water resistant up to 5 ATM (165 feet/50 metres)
Case back: Rounded octagonal case back in stainless steel screwed down by hand. Three-piece construction. Sculpted curved case back
Dial: Dial in trench with fine sunray finishing. Dial features applied Burberry logo. Faceted hands in silver applied by hand. Anti-reflective, scratch and shock-resistant sapphire crystal protects dial from the elements
Strap and clasp: Alligator strap in custom designed trench colour, Soft domed padding with tonal hand stitching in trench 18-16 mm width Ardillon buckle with combination of brushed and polished surfaces
Dimensions: 38 mm case