Fears goes High-End with the Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar

One of Britain’s oldest family-run watch companies, first established in 1846 by Edwin Fear in Bristol, the Fears Watch Company ran for 130 years until it closed in 1976. In 2016, it was re-established by Edwin Fear’s great-great-great-grandson, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. Until now, the brand has been a strong advocate of British watchmaking, offering distinctive, often quite elegant watches with relatively simple mechanics inside – mostly time-only, sometimes more complex, such as the collaboration with Garrick or jumping hour models. But today, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its return, Fears moves into the world of complications, as it releases the new Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar.

Named after Brunswick Square in Bristol, where the company’s export warehouse was based from 1920 to 1942, the Brunswick is probably the most recognisable modern watch produced by the British brand, distinguished by its cushion-shaped case. While adding a whole new level of complication to the brand and its collection, the new Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar retains the familiar design of the range, with a nicely sized 39mm case with a compact lug-to-lug measurement of 45.4mm. The case is also pretty thin (it is the thinnest model in the collection), at only 9.4mm and elegant, with its newly introduced brushed surfaces enlightened by polished bevels and an onion-shaped crown. Both the bezel and open display case back feature a concave profile and the flanks are home to the correcting pushers, a sign of the movement’s origin. Rated at 50m, the water resistance is fairly decent for a complex dress watch.

The dial, in addition to providing a sizeable number of indications, has also been the centre of attention, with a more refined execution than usual. The dial is softly frosted with a so-called “Silver Mink” tone, coated in pure silver. The large calendar sub-dials with circular grooves feature a new bespoke set of curved numerals and letters, designed in-house to fit the sub-dial’s curve. The hours are shown with quad- bevelled, diamond-polished, hand-applied indices which are coated in black gold to match the tri-bevelled hour and minute hands. The same attention to detail has been given to the moon, which comes with a black lacquer disc, inset with two silver moons hand-finished with Charbonage. The display is classic for a perpetual calendar, with date, weekday, month and leap year indications.

The familiar display can be explained by the mechanics underneath the dial, as the Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar relies on a Sellita SW300 base (clone of the ETA 2892) with a modified Dubois Dépraz perpetual calendar module on top. The base movement is hand-finished with frosted bridges and plates, including polished bevels on the edges with a dark Rhodium finish. It is wound by a custom 18k gold rotor.

Joining the existing Fears Garrick in the new Eminence Collection, the Fears Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar is worn on a brown Ostrich foot strap with Fears Blue Alcantara lining. A watch winder by SwissKubik is also included, and the watch is released as a non-limited edition. It is priced at GBP 26,950 for the domestic market and CHF 24,500 or USD 28,500 (both excl. taxes) for export.  Bespoke versions of the Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar can be made by consultation of the Fears Custom Division exclusively in Platinum.

For more details, please consult fearswatches.com.