{"id":809088,"date":"2026-10-20T23:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809088\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T23:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:30:20","slug":"portrait-tested-beyond-endurance-a-conversation-with-aldo-kane-about-bremont-watches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809088\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait: Tested Beyond Endurance – A Conversation with Aldo Kane about Bremont Watches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aldo Kane, an expedition leader, former Royal Marines sniper, and television adventurer, has spent the better part of a decade as a Bremont<\/a> ambassador, putting the brand\u2019s watches through volcanoes, jungles, oceans and mountains. We talk about how the relationship began, why he prefers a simple mechanical watch to a wrist computer, and what eight years of expedition life have taught him about reliability.<\/p>\n

Frank Geelen, MONOCHROME \u2013 How did your relationship with Bremont start? Did they contact you, or did you meet them some other way?<\/p>\n

Aldo Kane \u2013 I first heard about them through a friend who was doing base jumping \u2013 that must have been nine or ten years ago, maybe longer. They were in the back of my mind, but it wasn\u2019t until I started doing a lot more television work that things moved forward. I was invited to an event and ended up speaking to Nick and Giles at Bremont. That evening I just said to them, \u201cBy the way, I\u2019m going inside an active volcano next month \u2013 do you want me to take one of your watches in and test it?\u201d Their strap line at the time was \u201ctested beyond endurance,\u201d so it felt like the right fit. That was 2017, and I\u2019ve been working with them, unofficially and then officially, ever since \u2013 nine years now. I took their Martin Baker III into the volcano, lived in and around it for a month, and brought it back to tell the tale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Were they immediately open to working with you?<\/p>\n

At the time, Bremont was still very small, run directly by Nick and Giles, and there weren\u2019t many people doing the level of activity I was doing. Everything about what they were \u2013 exploring the planet, exploring yourself, testing yourself \u2013 was exactly in line with my own values. It fitted perfectly.<\/p>\n

How did it feel wearing a watch of that value into environments like that? Did it put pressure on you?<\/p>\n

Good question. Up until that point, I\u2019d never really worn an expensive watch \u2013 just digital ones that told me altitude, temperature, and so on, with a lot of functions you end up not really using. Moving to a proper watch, I actually enjoyed going back to something that just tells the time. And in a strange way, it\u2019s easier to wear a watch you haven\u2019t paid for into an environment like a volcano or a jungle, because you\u2019re not worrying about damaging it. Their line was \u201ctested beyond endurance\u201d \u2013 these watches are meant to go wherever a human being can go, and I\u2019m the person going to those places. So it was kind of my job to try and break it.<\/p>\n

I gave that first watch no quarter. Short sleeves the whole time in the volcano, watch fully exposed, rigging for seventeen or eighteen hours a day \u2013 sweat, dust, sand, ash. Inside a volcano, the atmosphere is incredibly corrosive. An aluminium ladder used to cross the crevasses between ash layers will corrode through in about two weeks with the rain and sulfuric acid. Carabiners corrode after two weeks and can\u2019t be reused. Ropes corrode. Even the stitching in your clothing comes apart, because the sulphur gas in the atmosphere mixes with rain into a mild sulfuric acid. It\u2019s probably one of the most destructive environments I\u2019ve worked in, for my own health and for the kit. So it was a genuinely good test.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the watch came out fine?<\/p>\n

Fine \u2014 even after all that. If I\u2019d bought that watch myself, I\u2019d have been terrified to use it in extreme environments. But having used Bremont watches for eight years now, you could take one I wore on the summit of Everest, one from exploring the ocean depths, and one I wore for eighteen months in the jungle, put them all back in the safe, and they\u2019d look the same as when they were new. It\u2019s very difficult to actually damage them.<\/p>\n

After the Martin Baker III<\/a>, how did the relationship with the brand develop? Did they start offering you watches for specific expeditions?<\/p>\n

When I came back from that trip, it landed on the BBC, and I was in the same volcano again shortly after for Discovery and Disney. I think they realised the exposure was authentic \u2013 I was doing this stuff anyway. It became official in 2018, when the brand asked me to be a full ambassador rather than just quietly testing in the background.<\/p>\n

That happened at a significant time, because I was heading out on a series with Steve Backshall, the UK naturalist. We had fifteen world-first expeditions booked back-to-back over about three years \u2013 paddling the Baliem River in Papua New Guinea, a first ascent of a tepui in Venezuela with abseils into Angel Falls and undiscovered cave systems, cave diving in Mexico, big walls in Oman, first descents of rivers in Suriname, jungle exploration in Borneo, kayak expeditions in the Arctic around Greenland. That period really cemented me in their eyes as someone actually walking the walk, not just talking about it.<\/p>\n

Do you remember which watches you wore on those expeditions?<\/p>\n

The Supermarine S502 \u2014 that was the dive watch<\/a>, and it stayed with me through pretty much all of it, probably two or three years. You can\u2019t tell just by looking at a watch, but whenever I get them out, each one has a story attached. I\u2019ll be watching something back on TV or YouTube and think, \u201cI remember that watch \u2014 it had the compass on it, that strap, in that jungle.\u201d They\u2019re all quite unique.<\/p>\n

Do you get to keep them?<\/p>\n

I think I have an allowance \u2013 one a year or something like that. But that probably only lasts as long as I\u2019m still doing the hard stuff.<\/p>\n

Watch collectors often talk about a watch carrying a special memory. For you, with expeditions being filmed as well, does that add something extra?<\/p>\n

I think so. Travelling now isn\u2019t like it was twelve or thirteen years ago, when you were properly off comms in the jungle \u2013 no tech at all. Now you\u2019re inundated with it: phone, GPS, Starlink, sat phones. Since that first volcano trip in 2017, I\u2019ve genuinely enjoyed having a nice timepiece that only tells the time \u2013 and if you\u2019re clever with it, you can work out direction using the hour hand. It just feels different being on an expedition with a proper timepiece.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, I had just finished filming a series for Apple TV called The Wild Ones, trying to find and film six of the rarest animals on Earth. Over that year and a half, I was testing the Supermarine Full Ceramic<\/a> \u2013 I spent something like 114 nights in the jungle across those two years with that watch. I could say, with a high degree of certainty, that I\u2019ve worn the jungle-green Full Ceramic for more days in the jungle than anyone else on the planet. Can\u2019t guarantee it, but I\u2019d put myself at about 99%. Each of these watches links not just to a time in my life, but to a specific set of expeditions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Going from a digital computer on your wrist \u2013 altitude, weather, all of it \u2013 to something as simple as two or three hands and maybe a date: how does that compare when it comes to actually reading the time?<\/p>\n

The digital watch always seemed to interrupt things. Over the last five years especially, I\u2019ve made a real effort to cut interruptions out of my day \u2013 no notifications; my phone\u2019s basically a black box. I love the simplicity of a mechanical watch: you just need to know the time, and you can see it. If you\u2019re lying in a hammock at night in the jungle, under the canopy for two weeks straight, it\u2019s easy to read at a glance. You\u2019re also not blowing out your night vision with a torch, which matters if you\u2019re in a hide and don\u2019t want to give your position away by lighting up your wrist in the dark.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the practical side \u2013 running out of battery halfway up a mountain, or three weeks into an expedition, is a non-starter. That used to happen with digital watches needing charging every day or two. It\u2019s just another problem on expedition that you don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That resonates \u2013 I did National Service in the Netherlands. Lying in an ambush position, needing to check a digital watch and having to press a button, shield the light so you don\u2019t give your position away.<\/p>\n

Exactly that. In the UK, we were issued a very simple NATO-issue watch \u2013 I can\u2019t remember the brand \u2013 but no light required; you could just see the time. Perfect. I love the simplicity of it.<\/p>\n

A lot of divers keep a mechanical watch as a backup alongside their dive computer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same logic as map reading. Plenty of people navigate on their phone, then the signal drops, the app crashes, or the battery dies \u2013 so you need the mechanical map and compass, and you need to know how to use it. Redundancy is the old rule: one is none. Dive computers run all the complex algorithms, but ultimately you need something that simply tells you how long you\u2019ve been down. That\u2019s your analogue backup.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the Martin Baker III, the Supermarine<\/a>, and the jungle-green Full Ceramic,<\/a>\u00a0have there been other watches you\u2019ve tested for the brand?<\/p>\n

Yes \u2014 the Terra Nova Bronze<\/a>, which I\u2019ve been wearing for about a year and a half now. I was always the ex-military, chunky-watch, adventure type, and I\u2019d never owned a dress watch. Bremont said, \u201ccome on, we\u2019ve got this new range \u2014 the Terra Nova Bronze.\u201d It was very different to anything I\u2019d worn before. I took it out to the UAE at the start of this year to film some content in the desert, and it\u2019s become my go-to watch at home now. It\u2019s the closest thing I have to a dress watch, though it\u2019s still robust and chunky by most people\u2019s standards. I wouldn\u2019t hesitate to take it on an expedition either \u2014 for me, kit and watches alike have to function as well as look good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has to be reliable.<\/p>\n

Time on expedition is critical. Almost everything comes back to time, and your ability to read and use it effectively against the weather, the environment, the conditions. It has to be a reliable toolkit.<\/p>\n

How much of an expedition is planned around timing?<\/p>\n

We spend about a year planning each expedition \u2014 logistics, safety, ground fixes, all of it \u2014 largely because you know it\u2019s going to go sideways once you\u2019re actually in the field. Timings on expedition are usually dictated by when the sun goes down. In the jungle, on the equatorial belt, it gets dark at six or six-fifteen every night, all year round \u2014 you could set your watch by it. So you have a defined window to work in. Elsewhere you can extend that with head torches and other tech, but timing is still critical \u2014 it\u2019s how you make and measure progress, whether military or civilian. It takes a certain amount of time to climb to a given height, or to cover a given distance in a given environment.<\/p>\n

Are you still the official Bremont ambassador?<\/p>\n

Yes \u2014 since 2018. I\u2019ve been with them through the transition from the old Bremont into where the brand is heading now. I\u2019ve stayed closely involved, testing kit and giving feedback, using it in the harshest environments. Most people who buy the watches probably won\u2019t put them through that, but they like to know it can be done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why collectors call certain dive watches \u201cdesk divers\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s usually the most action they\u2019ll ever see.<\/p>\n

Exactly \u2013 it\u2019s good to know that they can do it.<\/p>\n

Do you also give presentations for Bremont, talking to clients about the expeditions?<\/p>\n

Yes. After around eighteen months of filming in the jungle testing the Supermarine Full Ceramic, when they launched that watch, I came in and gave a presentation to Bremont clients and investors about testing it in the jungle \u2014 the experience, the aesthetics, what it felt like. That was earlier last year, or maybe the end of the year before. Essentially: here I am using this watch in this environment, 140 nights in the jungle, and so on. I have the luxury of having a lot of it documented on Apple, Disney, National Geographic, Discovery, the BBC \u2014 so people can actually see it being used the way it\u2019s meant to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over 140 nights in the jungle, surrounded by other gear that also tells the time \u2013 do you ever need to reset your mechanical watch to keep it accurate, or do you just set it once and go?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never had to do that. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true of watches generally, but those 140 nights came in three- or four-week blocks, and because I never take the watch off on expedition \u2013 except to clean it \u2013 it\u2019s in continuous motion the whole time. I\u2019ve never personally needed to reset it.<\/p>\n

That makes sense \u2013 a mechanical movement typically drifts two to four seconds a day, so it can add up, but over three, four or five weeks you\u2019re still only looking at maybe a minute either way. Not the end of the world.<\/p>\n

Interview conducted by Frank Geelen, MONOCHROME, transcribed and condensed for clarity. More details at www.bremont.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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