Are there other Brands/Watches as tough as a Bremont??

[phatjoe]

Hello:

I've recently discovered the Bremont watch brand. A huge selling point to me is that they claim the steel is 9-10 times harder than stainless steel. I don't plan beating the hell out of my watch, but I like for it to look "new" as long as possible. As I'm getting older, the idea of passing something along down the line is important to me.

I'm new to this, and researching other brands as well. Any other brand/watch that makes similar claims?


Thanks,
P

[Benjamin Chin]

Sinn.

(Though not all models are case hardened. Some are.)

[hpark21]

They can make the claim as much as they want, but NOTHING will be tougher and more accurate than a G-Shock and the family IMHO.

That said, among the mechanical watches, Damasko, Sinn (with hardened steel cases) and Ball comes to my mind when it comes to toughness, first 2 more so than the third.

Officially, Omega Speedy Pro is VERY tough, having passed the NASA qualification tests.

Anecdotally, some Rolex explorer and GMT II's went through a LOT and still passed with flying colors also Rolex can be fixed (among the In-house movements) practically anywhere in the world from my understanding.

[Janne]

The G-shock case is plastic. As such, it will scratch very easily. It will hive some shock proofing to the already resilient Quartz movement.

[nikidasi]

As far as I know, Damasko damest-coating is the hardest of them all.

Regards,
Indera

[stuffler,mike]

There are different ways to harden different steels (martensitic and austenitic as well).

Damasko for example does not use the 316L steel Sinn uses for their tegimented cases.

UTS for example works with 1.4305 steel. Rolex uses another one.

Damasko cases are ice-hardened (through and through), tegimenting (kolsterizing) is a surface treatment.

Nitriding - another case hardening process - is a surface hardening heat treatment that introduces nitrogen into the steel.
This process is similar to the process known as "kolsterizing" which introduces carbon into the surface layer. this Process was invented by dutch Prof. Kolster. You may visit the Bodycote web site for more information.

Here´s a quote taken from the interview WUS - Damasko in 2007:

....."Well, first of all I would like to mention that my major goal always was and still is to construct a watch with superior technical characteristics which should represent a very high standard. The most ideas or let´s say projects have been developed at home, sitting in front of the TV. While my wife is watching television I always have some drafts or paperwork on my knees I am fiddling about with.
It needed more than 3 ½ years of extensive work (at least the last two years) to realize the DAMINOX process which allows to harden austenitic steel alloy (316L, 904) to between 1000 and 1800 HV, depending on the composition of the stainless steel. So far the “ice-hardening” process of martensitic steel (we do use 1.41.08) was only the first step into a new world of hardened steel. Of course I had to face some backstrokes over the time but finally I succeeded.
All that is based on long years of extensive research which lead to several dozens of patents and I always feel proud when a watch leaves our factory"......

Since then Damasko developped Damest: In everyday life wristwatches are subject to hard use, which unfortunately can make marks on the case. Damasko has set the goal of manufacturing watches which brave the perils of everyday life and serve as a time keeping instrument for years without acquiring marks to show the age of the watch or reveal the hard life of the owner. The Damest coating is another innovation to support this goal.

The Damest coating protects the watch with its special structure, like no other coating, to maintain a new appearance. The special coating of Damest is a proprietary multi-layer composition. The foundation is the case material of martensitic stainless steel with a hardness of about 740 HV. This ensures a stable and impact-resistant base layer, which supports the upper layers and prevents them from breaking under stress. An intermediate zone about 1.5 µm (microns) thick is created by ion implantation on the surface of the case. This region is strong with hardness about 1500HV. It acts as a bonding layer between the case and the multi-layer coating.

The coating layer adheres to this region and spalling is prevented. The Damest multi-layer coating is applied in a PECVD process. The combination of layers is about 7µm (microns) thick with an outer hardness about 2500HV to resist abrasion. Some of the intermediate layers of the coating have a certain elasticity. By keeping the layers thin, the outer layers can deflect enough to resist chipping from impact without enough deflection to crack. The result of this combination of layers is a hard coating with high resistance to scratching the surface. So, the watch can look new for years.



Bremont: Bremont does not say very much about the technique they use, imho it is kolsterizing/tegimentin Here is a quote from QP magazine: "Furthermore, all the cases and buckles are brought back to England to be treated for hardness with B-EBE2000 technology, a process used on the turbine blades of jet engines. The cases are heated to high temperatures and carbon diffusion is used to increase the overall underlying hardness of the case to 1,200 Hv on the Vickers scale (normal watch-grade stainless steel is more like 280 Hv in hardness). Argon electron ions then prepare the surface of the case followed by a metallic ceramic coating at temperature, bringing the case hardness up to 2,000 Hv – the same hardness as sapphire crystal.

Based on this info I can not judge (just take it as it is) Bremont is kolsterizing, then plasma spray coating. Afaik all Bremont watches have that Trip-Tick (registered trademark by Bremont) construction which simply means that the watch case consists of three parts. A mid body, a hardened stainless steel bezel with sapphire crystal and a sapphire crystal case back. You can find the diagram on this Trip-Tick system on the official Bremont website. A hardened bezel is fine but what about the body ?

The Corvus does feature a kolsterized case as well.

Hope this helps a bit. That and much more is already written on WUS, feel free to make use of our cross-forum-search-function.

[jstroh]

The Bremont Supermarine 500 doesn't have a sapphire crystal caseback. At least mine doesn't. So not "all," although most may have it.

[stuffler,mike]

The Bremont Supermarine 500 doesn't have a sapphire crystal caseback. At least mine doesn't. So not "all," although most may have it.

Still three parts.

[Perseus]

Only Adamantium is stronger

[Sodiac]

The question is, how much "strength" do you (rhetorically speaking) really need in a watch? What are you going to do with it, drive nails? I've been wearing watches for 50 years and never damaged one - they all look great. I have an original Zodiac Seawolf I wore for 10+ years straight. Yep, the coating got nicked a bit, but the watch still looks great. I'm not sure what all this special metal does and why it's meaningful. In my mind, if you need a watch that will withstand a hammer strike, you shouldn't be wearing a watch. Or wear a $15 Casio Walmart special and if it gets beat up, replace it.