Bremont's founders built a British watch icon — then lost it to Bill Ackman

Bremont was founded in 2002 by brothers Nick and Giles English, two aviation enthusiasts who wanted to create a luxury British watch brand with a pilot's soul. They built it from a kitchen-table startup into the most recognised British watchmaker since Rolex, with celebrity fans including Tom Hardy, Roger Federer, and Prince William. By the early 2020s, Bremont was producing about 10,000 watches annually and had opened 'The Wing', a 35,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Henley-on-Thames that cost more than £25 million.

In 2023, Bremont took a £48.4 million investment from Bill Ackman's Hellcat Acquisitions, giving the American billionaire a majority stake. The brothers retained their board seats and remained the public face of the brand. On paper, it was a vote of confidence from one of the world's most famous investors. In practice, it was the beginning of the end of the English brothers' control over the company they had spent two decades building.

In April 2025, Bremont announced that Nick and Giles English were no longer board members. They were offered the title of 'brand ambassadors' — a ceremonial role with no operational power. The brothers who had built Bremont from a dining table to a £25 million factory were now employees of their own creation, reporting to the investor who had bought control of their dream. The company continues to operate, but the founding vision — a watch company run by pilots, for pilots — was replaced by a corporate growth plan designed by Ackman's team.