These watch companies have limited editions to commemorate the royal coronation on 6 May.

The Royal Coronation of King Charles III takes place this Saturday, 6 May, and will be livestreamed globally. Millions of people are expected to tune in to this momentous occasion, with hundreds of notable attendees. British brands have joined in to commemorate the event, including a few British-based watch companies.

Bremont

British watchmaking is experiencing a gradual and steady revival, with Bremont leading the way. The brand’s co-founders, Nick and Giles English, have a strong family history with engineering and aviation. The brand is named after an aviation incident where they were helped by a farmer, Antoine Bremont, and one of its earliest collaborations was with Martin Baker, the British aviation company responsible for developing ejection seat technology in fighter planes.

It’s apt that the MBII collection is the basis for the King Charles III Limited Edition. Limited to just 50 pieces, the 43mm watch is housed in hardened stainless steel with a Trip-Tick case design. The triple-case construction has a titanium knurled barrel for the case middle with a slim steel bezel and caseback. The watch’s surfaces are brushed and mirror polished.

The movement is housed in Bremont’s patented anti-shock mount, and it’s designed to be anti-magnetic with an inner soft-iron cage. On the dial, a bi-directional rotating bezel is controlled by a crown at 4 o’clock, and a central seconds hand is in royal purple. The rest of the dial follows the classic MBII design, with large Arabic numerals, bar indexes, sword hands, and a small date window at 3 o’clock.

On the closed caseback is an engraving that illustrates the crown and coronation of King Charles III. The watch also comes with a Challenge Coin bearing the same illustration. The Challenge Coin is also offered with compliments to any Bremont watch that’s purchased on its website without customisation. Challenge Coins are a military tradition, used to identify people in particular organisations or groups. They were popularised during WWI and continue to be a military tradition across the world.

While the Bremont MBII King Charles III Limited Edition is sold out on the website, it’s already popping up on pre-owned retail platforms if you’re keen on getting one for yourself.

William Wood

Founder Jonny Garrett created the watch brand William Wood and named it after his grandfather, who served in the British Fire Service. The brand is intricately tied to the field of firefighting, upcycling fire hoses and helmets. It supports the Fire Fighters Charity and New York Fire Department Foundation, among other projects.

The Triumph Collection British Coronation Watch is a chronograph in a bronze case with British green motifs on the dial and bezel. The dial features the Union Jack in a tonal green design, with two counters for the small seconds and 30-minute totaliser. The sandwich-style dial sports round lumed cutouts for the hour indexes, and the chronograph counters are partially cut out to mimic the look of aviation displays showing the horizon.

The bronzed case is distressed and slightly aged and will continue to patina over time, and the watch has an exhibition caseback with green-tinted sapphire crystal bearing the Union Jack motif as well. However, William Wood retains many of its iconic elements, such as the “In Case Of Fire Break Glass” print on the caseback and the steel crown with brass insert made from a firefighter’s helmet.

While the watch is sold out, there is a reserve list available on request.

Duckworth Prestex

Duckworth Prestex’s watchmaking history began in the 1920s, with the Prestex family producing chronographs and dress watches. It was discontinued in the 1960s and recently revived by third-generation family member Neil Duckworth.

The Coronation 2023 watch is available in two dials of 365 pieces each. Housed in a 39mm cushion-shaped case, the watch comes in a sunburst midnight blue dial with polished steel hands and indexes or salmon pink dial with blue hands and indexes. An off-centre seconds counter is printed with “2023”, referencing the coronation year. The watch is powered by an automatic Miyota 82S5 movement, a highly reliable performer with a two-day power reserve. The watches will be available from September onwards; pre-orders are available now.

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