This Titanium Mechanical Chronograph Is a Potent Mix of Vintage and Modern Watchmaking

Bremont overhauled its Altitude collection in 2025 with a motif inspired by the cockpits of modern fighter jets. The result was toolish and rugged with a polished refinement; pretty much Bremont in a nutshell.

But a new limited-edition Altitude Chronograph brings some mid-century charm to the modern pilot’s watch collection. Along with a vintage-inspired dial and a supple nubuck leather strap, the British watchmaker added some genuine vintage engines from the 1970s.

Bremont

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As the name reveals, Bremont’s new Altitude Chronograph Pulsograph Valjoux 23 incorporates a batch of new-old-stock Valjoux 23 movements.

Among watch history nerds like me, the Valjoux 23 is as iconic as movements get. Produced from 1916 to 1974 by the esteemed Valjoux manufacture, it set the standard for mechanical chronographs in the early twentieth century.

In its prime, the Valjoux 23 powered watches from Rolex, Vacheron and Patek Philippe, just to name a few. Heuer heavily modified it to meet the demands of early Carrera chronographs.

Bremont

Valjoux discontinued the 23 in the early 1970s as its own designs evolved, alongside the rise of automatic and quartz chronograph movements. But deadstock examples still surface on occasion and are refurbished for use, as seen recently with Nivada and Raymond Weil.

Bremont worked with Chronode to source, refurbish and add custom finishing to 40 new-old-stock Valjoux 23 movements for this limited-edition run.

A blend of sandblasting and brushing creates a mosaic of textures, with the Bremont wordmark and nautical star logo etched into a bridge plate, all visible through a sapphire crystal exhibition caseback.

The propeller age

Despite the vintage look, the Altitude Chronograph Pulsometer Valjoux 23 packs Bremont’s ultra-capable modern performance. The 42mm brushed titanium case contains the signature Trip-Tick midcase to protect from high-impact shock damage.

Bremont

It features a concave fixed bezel, faceted curved lugs, classic pump-style pushers and a substantial fluted crown, signed with Bremont’s nautical star in relief.

The Pulsometer segment of the watch’s name refers to the track on the outer rim of the dial, a scale calibrated to measure the frequency of a recurring event (like a heartbeat). It was a useful feature for pilots to gauge weather patterns before modern electronic equipment.

From there in, the copper-colored galvanic metal dial features a snailed minutes track with applied lume markers every five minutes, a grainy hour track with applied Arabic numerals and a vertically brushed central sector.

Bremont

The handset sticks to the Altitude motif, with sword hour and minute hands featuring blue-emission Super-LumiNova inlays. The twin sunken subdials are both silver with snailed centers.

There is a 30-minute totalizer at 3:00 and a small seconds at 9:00, featuring the three-pronged propeller seconds hand seen throughout the Altitude collection.

Availability and pricing

Bremont has a knack for blending vintage tool watch elements with modern aeronautical design language. This 40-piece limited-edition release takes it a step further by incorporating a genuine piece of watchmaking history.

The Altitude Chronograph Pulsometer Valjoux 23 is available now from Bremont for $28,650. At more than quadruple the price of the standard Altitude Chronograph GMT, this special release is aimed at hardcore watch collectors with a taste for history.

Bremont

Bremont Altitude Chronograph Pulsograph

Specs

Case Size	42mm
Movement	Refurbished Valjoux 23
Water Resistance	100m

• $28,650 at Bremont

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