BRM is the only French watchmaking manufacture, born of the strength of commitment and competitive spirit that has fuelled Bernard Richards since his earliest childhood.
A real motorman of watchmaking, Bernard Richards is governed in his passion for precision engineering by values such as surpassing oneself, exploit, extreme pleasure be it in car or bike racing or high technology.Armed with over 25 years watchmaking experience, BRM manufactures 2,000 watches of all models every year in the Vexin manufacture and deliberately shies away from huge annual productions.Five millions of euros have been invested in high technology, part of a constant quest to become more and more autonomous in manufacture.
BRM is pursuing this strategic wish for independence by investing in a micro-lathe early in 2008, to machine all the staffs in house. This supplements the purchase of two cutting machines for the pinions and wheels.This new stage increases the number of digital machines to fifteen.This genuine investment in the future is backed up by investment in human resources, as two to four employees have been hired every year for the last three years. The result is a team of 21 enthusiasts all governed by the same corporate philosophy: strong team spirit, real group cohesion valued by Bernard Richards who is still a key player in the BRM success.Reflecting exceptional mechanical sophistication and acclaimed by the aficionados of mechanical sports, BRM watches provide their wearers with an extraordinary timekeeper.BRM seeks to present outstanding pieces every year which mirror the universe of their owner, preferring the imperfection of crude brushing and polishing reminiscent of the finish on sports car and bike parts to over-polished and over-angled stereotypes.No other watch in the world is so impregnated with mechanical sports!
This Racing Spirit is anchored in the BRM mind:
Checkered motorsport flags on cases and straps, high-tech materials exploited in racing car construction used as watch components, model names based on engine parts. BRM shares the same luxury concept with enthusiasts of outstanding mechanics: watches that can be personalised at will, both in colour and material.Every craft-made BRM model, entirely modular to suit its customers' aspirations, is an individual and deliberately racy creation.This pioneering introduction of colour in luxury watchmaking satisfies a single production logic far from watchmaking standardisation:Performance is born of excellence of detail.
Every BRM model has its own, sometimes rather unusual history to tell, featuring the same principles dear to BRM: piston-shaped case, offset horns, slimmed-down hands, race number dial index, transparent sapphire upper case and caseback for the simple pleasure of contemplating the mechanics.Turning a stated desire to stand out into reality whilst maintaining this increasing wish for independence, BRM has created the R50 AND THE BIROTOR,the latest technological wonders, skeletonised, housing a BRM&Précitime movement designed entirely in house.
Bernard Richards
As he was starting to attend a watchmaking school, with the intention, afterward, to integrate an Applied Micromechanics school, his parents already excelled in the art of watchmaking in their own factory, for which Bernard Richards developed a series of watches, pens, lighters and other accessories designed for major international corporations specialized in the luxury industry. Suffused with this watchmaking fibre, this man - whose personality is authentic and original - created from scratch the GP 44, his first watch, his very first model, a true reflection of his other passion directly related to his watchmaking inspiration: mechanical sports.
Very quickly hostile to the logic of standardized serial production, and encouraged by the success of his first creation, Bernard Richards created BRM in 2002, the only French manufacture at the antipodes of standard serial watch production. A real motorist, this watchmaking wizard, as his aficionados sometimes call him for fun, never draws his watches. Unlike others, he builds a prototype straight away in his workshop. His motto: creating and developing these wonderful watch mechanics himself by «getting his hands dirty» as he likes to say.
«Matter». Bernard Richards tackles it with his o how precious and infallible software: his hands! Then, through a combination of titanium, arcap, carbon fibre or glass, steel and pink gold, machined by removing material, it is turned into one of these incommensurable time fireballs; true optimization of the craft industry, concentrated state-of-the-art technology, which make Bernard Richards’ success today. Completely independent, this little factory in a protected haven of peace in the Vexin region produces unique pieces, all finished by hand. Each model created by Bernard Richards has its own story, which is often unusual. A motorcycle engine inspired BRM’s R50.
This racing motorcycle collector, specialized in bikes dating back from the heroic times of the «Continental Circus», this mechanical maniac loves looking at his engines to their smallest detail all the way to their race tracks… And that is where he gets his inspiration. This «racing spirit» in its purest form, deeply rooted in the BRM’s spirit, makes Bernard Richards’ creations outstanding, very clearly apart from what is on the market.
A BRM watch leaves no one indifferent. It becomes an obsessive dream, its brushing and raw polishing imperfections bother some people but irreparably hook others; it ignores indifference! The rebel side that one can find in this atypical 50-year old creator, guides to the logic of the production at BRM’s. Bernard Richards does not make a watch with a sales target quantified in advance, he simply does it because he likes it. Clients only discover later that his watches are made of a super alloy.
Besides, this appetite for risk sometimes, that only small independent structures can afford, leaves open access to imagination, to make dreams come true. Bernard Richards sells dreams to his clients. A dream which becomes a reality when they wear a BRM watch on their wrist... Why wouldn’t his become true!
Amused by challenges, dimmed by what others do not do, this watchmaking craftsman, along with the man he likes to call «his incredible watchmaker,» presented the BRM Tourbillon at the Basel Fair in 2008. Anyone would have bet that the extreme watchmaking complexity of the tourbillon watch would make impossible this childish whim!
A man can do no more than he can.... three and a half months after he had this crazy idea of making it, the unique French Tourbillon was born following many sleepless nights spent imagining it. At the very minute these lines are printed, crazier ideas emerge in the form of a new time keeper, as a result of this artist’s growing and constant renewal, who celebrates the 25th anniversary of his watchmaking experience.
Official website: http://www.brm-manufacture.com
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