Sometimes, qualifications and industry experience count for less than initiative and determination – as is ably demonstrated by Sufyaan Collymore, Assembly Manager at Bremont’s impressive new state-of-the-art HQ, known as The Wing, which opened in 2021 in Henley-on-Thames.
Having first gained an interest from collecting “£20 watches you could buy on a part-time salary”, Sufyaan’s career as a watchmaker began on the coffee table in his mother’s house with broken pocket watches he’d bought from eBay. (“I tell you: it’s very easy to take something apart… but when you don’t know what you’re doing, putting them back together again can be very difficult!”) Teaching himself from YouTube videos, he soon amassed a makeshift tool kit – “a cheap pair of tweezers, screwdrivers… my own little eye loupe”. It hadn’t even occurred to him that his after-work hobby could become a career – indeed, he had no idea that luxury watchmaking even existed in the UK until he chanced across Bremont on Google (“everything else was all Swiss, Swiss, Swiss”). When he saw that Bremont was advertising for an Assembly Technician, he sent off his CV together with a covering letter. “I’m not the best writer,” he says, “so I thought I should just get my personality across.”
It impressed the hiring team at Bremont, but their invitation to come in for a bench test went unopened in his inbox until the day after the test. “I was 19 at this stage, so checking emails wasn’t on the top of my list,’” he says sheepishly. It took a while, but after plenty of back-and-forth messages, he was finally booked in for a bench test later in the year when more positions became available – and was promptly offered a place on the watchmaking team, picking up skills on the job, working closely with the head watchmaker right at the start. “He’d show us every step of the way – how to build a watch, how things worked – and eventually I progressed to the main workshop with the other assemblers,” Sufyaan says. As he built up his knowledge and developed a good skill base, he found he enjoyed helping the newer members of staff as they joined the team. “It got to the point that they needed someone to take over, so two years ago I became the manager of the department.”
Sufyaan’s story is typical of many at Bremont, not only because it is a relatively new brand (it was founded by brothers Nick and Giles English in 2002), but also because, with a few notable exceptions, luxury watchmaking was virtually non-existent in the UK before Bremont emerged. Consequently, unlike other industries, there is no longestablished route into British watchmaking – no tradition of following in your grandfather’s footsteps, no national apprenticeship schemes and few courses for gaining the relevant skills and experience.
Instead of expecting candidates to arrive with industry-standard credentials already in place, Bremont emphasises the importance of enthusiasm and an aptitude for learning (Sufyaan suggests that the assembly job suits the mechanically minded, particularly those who work well as part of a team).
In terms of further qualifications, the brand help to sponsor the prestigious British School of Watchmaking in Manchester and can put forward one member of staff for one of only eight places on the sought-after, one-year, 1,800-hour course.
And for anyone wishing to join the Bremont team, Sufyaan suggests taking your cue from his own story. “When I’m looking to hire, the CVs can be very samey, but the cover letter is the chance to get their personalities across; so long as they have the passion, we can train them to learn these skills.”
> Photography by Sam Walton
