Loomes & Co: All-British-made Watches Summit Everest for First Time Since Sir Edmund Hilary in 1953

     (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/514000/Loomes_Co_Mount_Everest.jpg )

Robina Hill, Managing Director of Loomes & Co said, "this is an incredible achievement. To summitMount Everestrequires planning, timing and a degree of luck. We aredelightedthey agreed to wear our watchesagain. Our English made watches are on top of the world."

It is the first time an entirely English-made watch has topped Everest since 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest carrying a Smiths, British-made, wristwatch.

The team that attempted Everest in 2015 were well on their way to the summit, but the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal reeked havoc causing a massive avalanche, which killed 22 climbers. The Ghurka team were lucky to escape alive and spent several days locating missing climbers and co-ordinating evacuation of the dead and injured from the mountain.

In May 2016, it was decided to return to the mountain to complete 'unfinished business'. In March this year the team left the UK with Loomes & Co watches amongst their equipment, arriving at Everest base camp in mid April - their goal being to put the first serving Ghurka on Everest.

Robert Loomes, the technical director at Loomes & Co said, "this is a ground breaking day for both us and the Royal Ghurka Regiment.Major Gale came to our workshops once again in March to collect them afterwehad modifiedthem to function in temperatures down to minus 40C degrees.

Brigadier Ian Rigden, expedition chairman, said "The aim of the expedition was to place a serving Gurkha on the summit of Mt. Everest for the first time. That the team had achieved this by placing 9 Gurkhas and 4 British team members on the summit is a magnificent achievement."

The Loomes brand is known for its robust and reliable entirely British-made timepieces. Robina Hill continues, "this was a great experiment for us and we areverygrateful to the Ghurka 2017 Everest team for taking our watches with them. They will be auctionedthis Autumnto raise funds for the GWT and The Mountain Trust."

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http://www.gwt.org.uk

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