What became of Bravingtons?

Our man's horological rabbithole heralds an improptu tour of London

- MARK MCARTHUR-CHRISTIE

WATCHES HAVE A tendency to lead one down rabbitholes. Sometimes these are predictable digging into the history of a particular movement or casemaker - but the best are utterly unexpected. When I picked up an old brochure from 1938- The Watch Book - produced by a firm I'd only vaguely heard of, Bravingtons, I'd no idea it would lead to searching London for lost buildings and even finding a connection to an iconic WW1 image.

Thomas Bravington started out with a pawnbroker's shop at 208 Pentonville Road in the early 1860s. By 1905, it seems, he'd opened another on Wardour Street. Pawnbroking appears to have been as eclectic a trade then as it is now - Bravington once accepted 1000 cigars as security for a loan.

He was clearly a canny operator. The firm grew, selling everything from trench watches in WW1 to clocks and christening bracelets in the fragile post-Versailles peace. By 1921 Bravingtons had enough commercial clout and connections to acquire 1000 '17 jewelled specially adjusted compensated lever movements that were expressly made for the Royal Artillery. It had them recased in gold and sold them for £6/15/0 a pop.