And the “lovely way” the brothers are going to cover the 3,500 miles of their journey is in two family classic cars. One is an old Jaguar E-Type bought and restored by Nick and Giles’s father over 30 years ago for their mother who had always loved them, and the second is an old Porsche 911 which Giles has owned for over 20 years. The combined age of the cars is around 80 years. “We will be starting in New York and heading down to Washington DC, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and finally San Antonio in Texas,” explains Nick. “I would describe it as a pleasurable, hopefully exciting and certainly tiring work escapade! A long and hectic road trip, which has become known as the ‘English Tour’.”

Throughout the tour, there will be an array of watches fit for the journey – “as long as Giles doesn’t misplace them,” quips Nick. Nick has settled on the vintage-inspired 40mm Supermarine S301. “It has such a lovely look and feel and it is very robust,” he says. But, as he is driving the E-Type, he will also be taking the white-dialled version of the Bremont Jaguar Mark II.

One significant development since the trip was originally planned is a charity angle, which was inspired by one of Bremont’s ambassadors. Nick explains: “Dan Friedkin, who flies in our wartime P-51 display team, The Bremont Horsemen, lives and has business interests down in Houston, Texas. He has witnessed incredible destruction due to Hurricane Harvey on a scale not seen around his city and surrounding area before. Ten of thousands of homes have been destroyed and a vast number of people are now homeless. As is often the case, it is the less affluent that end up the worse off after these disasters. Dan has set up something called the ‘Friedkin Relief Fund’, and we really want to try and raise money and awareness for the fund on our way down through the States – and indeed afterwards – especially due to the fact that our original destination before this horrendous storm was going to be Houston.”

Take two

The tour is due to take two weeks in total, although Nick jokes this will be determined by how many times the cars break down en route. “It is a long way to go in these old cars, and you really feel it even after an hour in the seat of the E-Type! It will be at least six-or-so hours driving day due to the roads we are taking and so we may need to sign up to a few pilates classes after the trip! But, the point is that it has to be fun. We obviously have some definitive stops we need to make at our retailers, but other than that, it will be about finding some interesting roads off the beaten track to really get to explore and understand the interior of the US. The Appalachians, for example, should be a stunning leg of the journey if we manage to pick the right routes to take.”

So, what started as a fun, but tiring trip to visit retailers following some stunning US scenery, has now become more of a mission with a whole new charity angle to the journey. “Dan is a great friend and if we can help the folk in Houston, even in a small way, it will be wonderful accomplishment,” says Nick.

“In addition, we have various friends from the watch and car club worlds taking a seat in the old cars on some of the legs which will be a blast. But, most importantly, we will be taking Claire, our long-suffering assistant, with us. She does an incredible job at organising mine and Giles’s lives and we would honestly have no hope of getting anywhere on time without her on this trip.

“A great friend of mine, who is also a professional photographer, will also be joining us for the whole two weeks and hopefully taking some fun and stunning photos and video. If we can make some vaguely interesting content out of this mad trip it would be great – but we are not holding our breath.”

Nick and Giles, Revolution wishes you safe travels and we wish we were coming with you.