Giles English grew up in and around aviation and inherited both this passion and the love of engineering from his father. Unsurprisingly he then went on to read General Engineering and Naval architecture at Southampton University. As a post-grad he joined Williams de Broe Corporate Finance to advise them on IPOs for engineering businesses.
In 1995 Giles’ life changed drastically after he witnessed his father and brother have a terrible plane crash; his father died but Nick English survived against all odds. Upon Nick’s recovery, Giles made the decision to leave corporate finance and, with his brother he went to rescue North Weald Flying Services, a family business restoring historical aircraft based in Essex.
It was here that Nick and Giles realised they worked well as a team and started to formulate a plan to launch Bremont Watch Company, a British watch making business very much based around their love of engineering and developed from a family love of horology. Knowing this was going to be a long and costly process they raised some funds by starting a business pioneering audio and video on the internet; Virtue Broadcasting listed on the Stock Exchange in 2000 and at the time Giles was the youngest Director on the UK Stock Exchange.
Bremont was founded in 2002 with Giles and Nick as founding shareholders but it was not until 2007 that the watches were on the market having spent 5 years in development; the brothers had to mortgage their houses and commit everything to a business that everyone thought was impossible. Passion, dedication and a will to succeed has grown Bremont to be in the top 10 chronometer producers in the world today with global retail coverage. With Giles and Nick’s unique approach to product and marketing they have managed to build a strong business in a very crowded market and have brought watch making back home to Britain.
In 2013 Giles was also in a serious aeroplane crash when his 1930s Gipsy Moth had engine failure mid-flight. On forced landing Giles broke his back in multiple places but has luckily gone on to make a full recovery and his enthusiasm for life is stronger than ever.
Giles lives with his wife and 3 daughters in Northamptonshire.