Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Bremont - Codebreaker Limited Edition


Bremont - Codebreaker Limited Edition NEW


“The intelligence... from you (Bletchley Park)...
has been of priceless value. It has saved thousands
of British and American lives and, in no small way,
contributed to the speed with which the enemy was routed
and eventually forced to surrender... (It was a) very
decisive contribution to the Allied war effort.”

̶  General Dwight D. Eisenhower


 Bremont Watch Company is working with the Bletchley Park Trust to create the 'Codebreaker'; a historically and mechanically important Limited Edition watch.

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Bremont Watch Company and the Bletchley Park Trust are pleased to announce that they will be working together on the release of the new Bremont limited edition watch that will incorporate historical artefacts from Bletchley Park. It will be called the ‘Codebreaker.’ The watch is unlike any other watch ever created and in addition a percentage of the proceeds will be used towards the ongoing restoration of Bletchley Park.

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Bletchley Park played an extremely important role in British history. During WWII it was converted into a codebreaking factory and became the site of the United Kingdom’s main decryption establishment, the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS,) where ciphers and codes were decrypted, most famously the ciphers generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines.

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By inventing and using ingenious machines and novel manual techniques to crack German ciphers, the 9,000 scientists, mathematicians and other crucial supporting staff are said to have helped shorten the war by at least two years and saved millions of lives.

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Inspired by a classic 40’s officers watch, the ‘Codebreaker’ will be made with a beautiful and never seen before Flyback Chronograph GMT automatic movement and will incorporate some relevant historical artefacts from Bletchley Park; pine from the iconic Hut 6 (the centre of the operations to decrypt the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe Enigma ciphers) and paper from one of the few remaining punch cards (used to analyse the vast amount of coded data created from the daily Enigma communications).

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Part of the rotor of the watch will be made from the wheel of an original Enigma machine. 240 steel Codebreaker watches will be created and 50 rose gold watches.

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 Giles English; Co-founder Bremont

“Bletchley Park has such an amazing place in world history and has not only inspired us to create the beautiful ‘Codebreaker’ watch, but enabled Bremont to help raise funds and profile for the preservation of this important heritage site of which we are so proud.”

Iain Standen; CEO Bletchley Park Trust

Bremont accomplished a great deal with the HMS Victory watch, both in terms of product and the benefits to the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Knowing this and seeing Bremont’s vision, we were keen to work with them. The mission of the Bletchley Park Trust is to preserve this important part of history for future generations.”

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Nick English; Co-Founder Bremont

“Mechanically we have made some considerable movement developments and incorporated materials that have never been built into a watch before. By moving the chronograph dials, building a Flyback Chronograph function and GMT second time-zone we have accomplished a wonderful mechanical timepiece. Both Giles and I were inspired by the ‘Bombe machine’ and the rotor balance is based on the Bombe’s drums. Each watch will have its limited edition number embedded into the case barrel with original punch cards. Hut 6 is part of the current restoration programme and fragments of its floorboards, on which codebreaking giants, such as Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman walked, have been incorporated into the watch crown.”

Bletchley Park

For decades, the World War Two Codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park was one of the UK’s most closely guarded secrets. Today, it’s a poignant place to visit and reflect on the achievements of those who worked there. Their outstanding feats of intellect, coupled with breakthrough engineering and dogged determination, were crucial to the Allied victory and in parallel, helped kick start the computing age.

Thousands of people worked at Bletchley Park during WWII to decipher messages transmitted by the German forces. The standard 3 rotor Enigma was capable of being set to approximately 158 trillion possible settings. The reading of encrypted messages on an industrial scale, the use of the intelligence gained and the subsequent related actions of the Allies are said to have shortened World War Two by two years, saving countless lives. The critical importance of Bletchley Park in world history cannot be denied.

Bletchley Park is also the birthplace of the computer.
The world’s first programmable electronic computer, Colossus, was conceived and installed at Bletchley Park during WWII to speed the reading of encrypted German messages sent by Hitler and the high command. Bletchley Park is unique. It combines a key role in modern history with being the birthplace of the digital age.



About Bremont
Bremont is an award-winning British company producing beautifully engineered chronometers at our Headquarters in Henley-on-Thames, England. Time began for Bremont when we embarked on a journey to make beautifully crafted pilot’s watches of exceptional quality. Flying historic aircraft has been in our blood from an early age, as has our love for watches, history, and all things mechanical. The timepieces had to be tested beyond any normal call of duty (and not just in the workshop), and of course be immensely precise and durable. Bletchley Park has such an amazing place in world history and has not only inspired us to create the beautiful ‘Codebreaker’ watch, but enabled Bremont to help raise funds and profi le for the preservation of this important heritage site of which we are so proud.

Above: Enigma machine rotors

Bletchley Park is also the birthplace of the computer. The world’s first programmable electronic computer, Colossus was conceived and installed at Bletchley Park during WWII to speed the reading of encrypted German messages sent by Hitler and the high command. Bletchley Park is unique. It combines a key role in modern history with being the birthplace of the digital age.
 
Bombe Machine

The Bombe machine was developed to speed up the breaking of Enigma, so that messages were still operationally relevant. The Bombe helped to deduce the day's Enigma settings, of both the rotors and the plug board, by eliminating the many incorrect possibilities.

The Codebreakers created a menu for the wiring at the back of the Bombe based on a hypothesis, known as a 'crib', of part of the original message. Cribs were often derived from regular appearances in decyphered messages of stock  phrases, such as 'message number' or 'nothing to report'.

The machine was developed by Alan Turing and the case back of the Bremont Codebreaker has been designed to replicate the drum of the Bombe machine.



Above: Row of drums from the Bombe machine


Breaking Enigma
The Enigma used rotors to scramble messages into unintelligible cyphertext. The German military adapted an early commercial version, marketed to the banking industry, and believed it to be impenetrable. Each one of the machine's billions of possible combinations generated completely different cyphertext. Finding those settings, which were reset at midnight every day, was the challenge faced by the Codebreakers.


 Right: Original Enigma machine
Below: Enigma machine rotor







 


Before WWII, work was being undertaken in a number of countries to break Enigma. In July 1939, aware that Poland would soon be invaded, Polish mathematicians who had worked on Enigma shared their work with the British and the French.
By this time the Germans were changing the Enigma settings daily and the fi rst British wartime breaks into the daily-changing Enigma code took place at Bletchley Park in January 1940. The rotor of the Bremont Codebreaker will contain original material from the enigma machine rotor (below).

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Punch Cards

When GCHQ left Bletchley for Eastcote in 1946 the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) cards were boxed up and were later moved to Cheltenham when GCHQ moved again in 1952. The cards were discovered when GCHQ was preparing to release records to The National Archives, GCHQ allowed them to go to the Bletchley Park Trust along with other records. With over 2 million created every week there is only half a box remaining, 5 cards are being incorporated into the barrel of the Codebreaker watch to display the watches serial number.

Uses of the punch cards:

The BTM system was essentially an early form of computer processing. The system managed the BP Punch-Card Intelligence Index and was thus key to the success of the Codebreaking work, specifi cally recording Enigma decryption information.

One of the challenges facing BP staff was to break the daily Enigma codes before the rotors were re-set (these were done so every 24 hours). The BTM machines allowed the analysis of decryption information: Punch Cards based on the coded messages would either block or allow electrical currents to pass through them enabling the operators to limit the number of possible Enigma wheel-settings and therefore the number of possible solutions to each days Enigma code.

Above: Original punch cards being incorporated into Codebreaker to display its serial number.

Hut 6
Hut 6 was built in January 1940 for the decryption of Enigma messages from the German Army and Air Force, with help from the punch cards and then the Bombe machines. The cards were used to help deduce the Enigma keys and wheel orders. Once the day's Enigma settings had been partially established with help from the Bombe, the information was sent back to Hut 6 where it was used to complete the discovery of the Enigma settings. Decrypted messages were then passed to Hut 3 for translation and analysis. Original pieces of Hut 6 pine will be incorporated into the crown of the Bremont Codebreaker.


Above: Bletchley Park staff working in Hut 6

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TEChNICAL FEATURES

MADE IN ENGLAND
Stainless Steel and Rose Gold.

Movement
BE-83AR Flyback chronograph. Diameter 13 1/4", height 7.90mm,
39 Jewels, three-legged Glucydur balance with Nivarox 1 mainspring 28,800 bph.
Incabloc shock protection and 46 hour power reserve.
Perlage and blued screwed decoration with hand crafted stainless steel and Bombe rotor.
Functions
Sweep hours, minutes, sweep Flyback chronograph seconds,
30-minute chronograph counter and 60 second hand counter,
GMT second time zone, date.
Case
 hardened stainless steel or 18 carat rose gold
Bremont Trip Tick case construction with treated inner
barrel with punch card limited edition number (material from Bletchley park).
Case diameter 43mm, lug width 22mm and case thickness 15mm.
Crown
Crown engraved with pinewood from hut 6, Bletchley Park.
Case Back
hardened stainless steel or 18 carat rose gold
case back with integrated hand etched sapphire crystal.
Automatic rotor inspired by the Bombe machine incorporating
parts of an original German Enigma rotor.
Dial
Etched metal dial and treated brass hands,
London on the dial.
Crystal
Domed anti-refl ective,
scratch resistant sapphire crystal.
Water resistance
Water resistant to 10ATM,
100 metres.
Strap
Classic style leather strap.


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www.bremont.com

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Ball Watch - Trainmaster First Flight Limited Edition


















Ball Watch - Trainmaster First Flight Limited Edition NEW

 

BALL 2013 Novelty: Trainmaster First Flight


Trainmaster First Flight
A fitting watchmaking tribute to the 110th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight


2013 marks the 110th anniversary of the first flight of American aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers. On 17th December 1903, Wilbur (1867 - 1912) and Orville Wright (1871 - 1948) successfully made in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (USA), the first ever motorized flight in their aircraft Flyer. After many years of aeronautical research, they developed the first motorized airborne vehicle. Their achievement helped mankind make one of its oldest dreams – the conquest of the skies – a reality.


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Aviation has always relied upon the most reliable, accurate and resistant instruments. Watchmaking is no exception. It was therefore only natural that BALL Watch Company chose to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Flyer's first flight by creating the Trainmaster First Flight.

This exceptional timepiece is designed both as a fitting tribute to the Wright brothers’ extraordinary story and a stunning piece of watchmaking craftsmanship. BALL Watch Company is thus writing the latest chapter in the history of the Trainmaster collection. Bringing together BALL’s most beautiful classic timepieces, this collection harks back to the very first watches to bear the “BALL’s standard” signature. 


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The accuracy and reliability of those early watches ensured that the railroads ran smoothly throughout that great era of rail. The Trainmaster First Flight’s stainless steel case is 41 mm in diameter and features a black dial with an elegant design of fine vertical lines. The satin finish of the case contrasts subtly with the polished bezel. The transparent sapphire crystal case back proudly reveals the movement mechanism, and features a silk-screen printed design of Flyer's first flight. It is also engraved with the individual number of each timepiece in this limited edition of just 600 pieces.





























The ability to read information easily is a key feature of any aircraft navigation instrument. Here the watch's easy readability is ensured by distinctive metallic hour markers and a large date display positioned at 12 o'clock. The hour and minute hands have also been designed to evoke the distinctive elliptical propeller blades found in early airplanes.


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The most important technical feature of the Trainmaster First Flight is its automatic BALL 651 caliber, based on an ETA 2892 movement. By modifying in-house this movement, BALL Watch Company added a large date display and elegant sub-dial for a second time zone positioned above 6 o'clock. The latter feature may prove particularly useful for pilots, who frequently cross time zones during their flights. To ensure that wearers can read the timepiece even in total darkness, the twelve markers on the dial and the main hands are fitted with micro tubes containing luminescent 3H gas. This state-of-the-art Swiss technology requires no external light or energy sources and is up to 100 times more effective than conventional luminescent paints. The yellow micro tubes on the hands and 12 o'clock marker are subtly distinguished from the green tubes on the other markers.


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In keeping with the tradition of aviation watches, the Trainmaster First Flight comes with either a crocodile leather strap or, for a sportier look, a stainless steel bracelet.

In a final nod to aviation history, this watch is presented in a custom leather pouch, evoking the iconic briefcases used by pilots in the early days of aviation. A genuine navigation plotter customized with the BALL logo is included within the pouch. BALL Watch Company created the beautiful Trainmaster First Flight as a limited edition of only 600 pieces to pay tribute to the genius of the Wright brothers.




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Technical Specifications

 
Movement

Automatic caliber BALL 651 (
based on an ETA 2892)
Functions
15 micro gas tubes on hour, minute, second hands and dial for night reading capability
Second time zone indication
Shock resistant to 5,000Gs
Water resistant to 50m/160ft
Hours, minutes, sweep seconds and date
Case
Stainless steel
Ø 41mm, height 12.75mm
Anti-reflective sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal case back
Screwed-in crown
Band
Stainless steel bracelet with folding buckle or crocodile leather strap with standard or folding buckle
Dial
Black


Model Number GM1056D-L2J-BK
Limited Edition
600 pieces


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www.topperjewelers.com
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www.BallWatch.com