Rather than just launching new models earlier this year at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024, Bremont rolled out a major rebranding campaign that included everything from a new logo to a significant overhaul of its entire lineup. Reactions to the rebrand dominated most conversations about Bremont during the weeks immediately following the show; however, now that most of the dust has settled, it’s worth taking a step back and actually examining the new watches themselves. Part of Bremont’s rebranding efforts involved creating a more attainable point of entry for its catalog, and among its novelties unveiled this year in Geneva is the Bremont Terra Nova 38, which is a simple time-only field watch and the brand’s single most affordable offering.
Bremont has always produced a variety of dive watches and aviation-themed models, although the Terra Nova collection is an entirely new addition for 2024, and it serves as the brand’s lineup of land-based adventure models with design cues inspired by military pocket watches from the early 20th century. Alongside two models fitted with compass bezels (one equipped with a chronograph and the other with a power reserve indicator), the inaugural launch of the Bremont Terra Nova collection also includes two different field watches. While the larger field watch model receives a centrally-mounted seconds hand and a date window at the 3 o’clock location, the Bremont Terra Nova 38 featured here is the most straightforward no-frills option within the series, and it offers a simple time-only design without the addition of even a running seconds indicator.
The Bremont Terra Nova models are united by their geometric cushion-shaped profiles, and while they don’t include the brand’s signature Trip-Tick case construction, they are crafted from 904L stainless steel, which offers superior corrosion resistance compared to the standard 316L variety that is used throughout the vast majority of the watch industry. As the smallest model from the collection, the Bremont Terra Nova 38 measures 38mm in diameter with a total height of 10.7mm, including the gently domed sapphire crystal that extends above the rim of its polished bezel. The short angular lugs are set 20mm apart and extend from the case to create a compact overall lug-to-lug profile of 44mm, while the weight of the Terra Nova 38 comes in at 62 grams, not including its strap or bracelet.
The caseback fitted to the Bremont Terra Nova 38 is decorated with an engraving of a stylized globe, although the perfect alignment of the engraving (and the lack of notches for any type of caseback tool) would indicate that the Terra Nova 38’s caseback follows a standard snap-on design, rather than being the more secure screw-down variety. Similarly, the large winding crown at 3 o’clock is signed with Bremont’s new compass rose “Wayfinder” logo; however, it is a standard push/pull-style crown rather than a threaded design that allows users to lock it down to the middle case. With that in mind, despite not having threaded connection points at its winding crown or caseback, the Bremont Terra Nova 38 still offers 100 meters of water resistance, which should be more than adequate for nearly all real-world situations.
Given that the Bremont Terra Nova 38 is intended to be a rugged outdoors-oriented field watch, I would have personally preferred to see it have a screw-down crown and caseback. Additionally, since the Terra Nova 38 runs on a time-only automatic movement, manually winding the watch isn’t going to be part of your daily routine, and without even a date display to require periodic correction, the crown could easily be something that you screwed down to the case until either daylight savings or travel required adjustment of the time. As for the caseback, while a snap-on approach enables its markings to be perfectly aligned for a more refined overall appearance, something deep within my horological lizard brain simply wants more than pure friction when it comes to how the caseback gets attached to a field watch.
The Bremont Terra Nova 38 is available with the option of either a white or dark anthracite gray dial, although both versions offer the same fundamental design with a pair of centrally-mounted hands, large Arabic numeral hour markers, and vintage-inspired beige Super-LumiNova. The oversized Arabic numerals are carved from solid blocks of Super-LumiNova and attached directly to the surface of the dial, while traditional beige-colored Super-LumiNova paint is applied to the hands and the small geometric shapes within the railroad-style minute track. When viewed in bright lighting, the two different types of Super-LumiNova appear in slightly different shades of tan/brown, although all of the luminous elements glow bright green to provide the Terra Nova 38 with a highly legible display in the dark.
Powering the Bremont Terra Nova 38 is the brand’s Caliber BE-36AL automatic movement, which is based on the core architecture of the Sellita SW200. Just like other movements that share this rather ubiquitous fundamental design, the 26-jewel Bremont Cal. BE-36AL offers the familiar specs of an operating frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 38 hours. Without a seconds hand, the Terra Nova 38 doesn’t offer any type of visual indicator that the watch is running, and while I personally find it to be somewhat mentally freeing when you can’t track the exact precision of a movement, I also find a seconds hand to be objectively a useful addition on any type of function-forward timepiece, simply because it enables the measurement of short intervals of elapsed time.
The Bremont Terra Nova 38 is available with the option of either a brown leather strap or a new style of bracelet, which is crafted from 904L stainless steel with a curved-link design that mirrors the outer radius of the Terra Nova collection’s case. The areas where the end-links meet the lugs might look slightly mismatched or disjointed; however, this design ultimately creates a very comfortable overall package on the wrist, where the bracelet starts articulating even before the tips of the lugs. Additionally, while the bracelet connects to the case with integrated quick-release springbars, it secures on the bottom of the wrist with a standard butterfly-style clasp, and despite offering a rather sleek and refined profile, the clasp doesn’t include any type of micro-adjustment system, which means that adding or removing links via single-sided screws is the only way to adjust the length of the bracelet.
Aside from its angular cushion-shaped profile, the Bremont Terra Nova 38 otherwise feels like a modernized expression of a classic field watch; however, the model takes on an entirely different personality when paired with the collection’s bracelet. While the dial of the watch adheres to a vintage-inspired utilitarian design ethos, the Terra Nova’s bracelet feels inherently modern and elegant, and the resulting package could best be described as a mashup between a standard-issue vintage military piece and a luxury-oriented integrated bracelet sports watch. I almost want to describe the on-wrist experience of the Bremont Terra Nova 38 as “Hamilton Khaki meets Cartier Santos” (which, admittedly, sounds like a bit of a train wreck), although I actually enjoy the unusual juxtaposition of styles, and the bracelet helps make the Terra Nova 38 feel tangibly different from other high-end field watches.
Given Bremont’s positioning as a premium brand, one of the most common criticisms of its watches has historically been that they sometimes feel a bit too expensive, and a key goal of the recent rebranding efforts was to establish a more attainable point of entry for its catalog. With an official retail price of $2,850 USD on a leather strap or $3,150 USD when buyers opt for the bracelet-equipped version, the Bremont Terra Nova 38 is quite a bit less expensive than what we have typically come to expect from the brand in recent years, and this new entry-level model helps open up Bremont’s catalog to a wider audience. That said, although the Terra Nova 38 is the brand’s single most affordable offering, it is also objectively less complex than Bremont’s flagship models with Trip-Tick cases, and it is ultimately a refined and modernized expression of the classic time-only field watch. For more information on the Bremont Terra Nova collection, please visit the brand’s website.
