Swiss watchmakers are turning to bronze – here’s why you should, too.

Something strange is afoot in the Jura Mountains. Bronze is sweeping the workshops of Switzerland’s finest watchmakers, the rugged copper-and-tin alloy replacing stainless steel as the horologist's metal of choice.

The Bronze Age before this one began in the 4th millennium BC, and swept across China and India reaching Europe by 2000BC, bringing about the end of the Stone Age. Bronze remains widely used and in many cases, essential. Not least on ships.

Since its resistance to corrosive seawater is much greater than that of iron, bronze is used for outwardly facing equipment on boats: portholes, handrails, cleats, winches, compass binnacles. High-tech “marine-grade” bronze is still universally used for ship propellers.

Of course, it’s this close link to the maritime world that makes bronze a particularly romantic metal for diving watches – from Panerai’s early Bronzo to the Oris and Maurice de Mauriac pieces. But for other watchmakers, it’s all about bronze’s warm, mattified sheen in collaboration with its sheer, monumental heft. In fact, it was precisely this butch, golden-brown look that inspired the very first luxury watch in bronze in 1988: the Gefica. Mr Gérald Genta designed it at the request of three big-game hunters, who wanted a watch that wouldn’t glint and glare when the prey was in their sights. The names of these men were Messrs Geoffroy, Fissore and Canali, which Genta simply created a portmanteau from. It was, shall we say, a different age.

There is one other side to the bronze story that isn’t shown on the watch catalogues – something that owners can’t avoid, and soon learn to love: the green-grey patina, which develops over time in reaction to air, moisture, heat and friction.

This “crust” isn’t corrosion. On the contrary, it is bronze’s “skin” – a protective layer that slows down any further oxidation of the metal. And because it develops haphazardly with your lifestyle, where you are on the planet and how much you wear it, every bronze watch’s patina is unique. “Stainless steel is harder, so offers excellent possibilities for different finishings and higher scratch resistance,” concedes Beat Fischli, COO at Oris. “But bronze is alive, it changes its colour, it creates a patina layer. A watch made of bronze will tell a story to and also about the enthusiast wearing it.”

Hoist the mainsail, matey. Your voyage back to the Bronze Age starts here.

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See that “Pilot” on the dial? Almost unbelievably, after a rummage through the archives, Zenith recently discovered it held the exclusive rights to have that word printed on its dials. And for good reason – even Mr Louis Blériot himself wore one of its watches during his pioneering cross-Channel flight in 1909. These chunky, no-nonsense aviator watches also acquit themselves nobly “in the field”, with a big crown making it easy to adjust with gloves on. The earthy nobility of the bronze case adds to the whole Biggles-worthy package.

Unless you’re a US Navy history buff or a fan of Mr Cuba Gooding Jr’s cinematic oeuvre, chances are you won’t know who Mr Carl Brashear is. He’s not only the first African-American to become a US Navy Master Diver, but in 1968 became the first amputee diver for the US Navy, having lost his leg below the knee during bomb-recovery operations in 1966 – an incident documented, along with the rest of Mr Brashear’s life story, in the film Men Of Honor (2000), with Mr Gooding Jr playing the man himself. Not only is Oris’ amazing-value automatic chronograph a fitting tribute, the warmth of the case metal complements the deep-blue dial with a dash fit for the officers’ mess.

The plucky adventurism of Seven Summits mountaineers is celebrated here by Montblanc with two gently domed maps of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres – each continent’s highest peak marked with seven red dots. But they serve a purpose too, in addition to the second time-zone indicator at nine o’clock, rotating once every 24 hours within day and night rings. So as long as your geography is up to scratch, you’ll always know the time anywhere in the world.

IWC Schaffhausen was one of three Swiss watchmakers who made the megalithic B-Uhr chronometer during WWII, whose 55mm of minimalist precision instrumentation was strapped around every navigator’s thigh.

The prosaically named Big Pilot’s Watch pays (only slightly smaller) tribute to this heritage, complete with knurled “onion” crown and vintage markings. In limited-edition bronze however, it assumes a whole new presence on the wrist – polished, unusually, to a flawless shine. Once the green-ish patina creeps in, the contrast of marble and gleam will look unlike anything else.

One of Switzerland’s premier furniture designers might seem a strange starting point for a diving watch. But Mr Fabian Schwaerzler was trained as a metalworker before completing his studies in industrial design, making him the perfect collaborator for fellow Zurich enterprise, watchmaker Maurice de Mauriac. The resulting L Series’ clear, unfussy lines leant perfectly to a diver’s iteration, boasting as much substance as style: a potent cocktail of classic 1950s and 1960s diving-watch motifs in minimalist form. A broad, gnurled bezel is present and correct, even a helium escape valve if you find yourself in a “saturation dive” situation, but the kicker for most will be a price tag that belies such a high-tech package – and all of it now in glorious, golden bronze – and, like the Oris Carl Brashear, set off by sumptuous navy detailing.

Despite the fact it was only founded in the early 1990s, Parisian-designed, Swiss-made watchmaker Bell & Ross has quickly become the supplier of choice for all manner of professional hardmen, from fighter squadrons to bomb disposal squads and Swat teams. But Bell & Ross’ recent, sepia-tinged Bellytanker pieces a rare diversion into near-whimsy, alluding to the hot-rodders of the US’s salt flats who commandeered old WWII aircraft fuel tanks as the bodywork of their four-wheelers. When Mr Wei Koh of watch-industry publishing phenomena Revolution and The Rake worked with B&R on a short-run collaboration, things got even cooler. Mr Koh wanted a yellow-gold version to pick up on a legendary Bellytanker racer upcycled from a P-51 Mustang, but thank goodness for Bell & Ross’ famed price accessibility – compromise came in the form of bronze, which lends even richer intensity here.

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