Another day, another Bell&Ross. I’ve always loved B&R and I’m still loving them thanks to their new WWI line. They kind of blew their wad on the square BR line so they moved into a more heritage look and I’m glad they did. The WW1-92 is a circular watch with a huge diameter and faux wire lugs that simulate the original pilots watches from way back when.
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Bell & Ross, not content to rest on their aviation laurels, has released the WWI-92 edition, a watch based on a World War I era pocket watch. The watch is strikingly simple – just a black face with silvered hands and case – and the 97 version has a reserve de marche and all models feature welded lugs, a wonderful detail that hearkens back to the days when wristwatches were actually pocket watches with bars soldered onto them so they could be worn on the wrist.
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While I’ll admit that the words “vintage officer” make me think of a drunken war hero who graduated college, I’m quite enamored by the look of this new B&R chrono. It has a definite Speedmaster feel to it. Ir runs a nice ETA 2895 for the three hand version (the 123) and a 2894 for the 126 chrono version. It is 41mm and comes in steel with anti-reflective domed crystal.
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Man, Bell&Ross is going strong this year. I love the Military Ceramic BR 01 style beast now called the BR 03-92 with military band and I’m kind of liking the new series in chrono and three-hand form. I guess people were tired of having a big square thing on their wrists and wanted something more delicate.
The look of the Bell & Ross BR-01 92 is based on the simple, clean design used on airplane instrumentation panels. The hands and numeral markers on these watches are recognizable as those on analog altimeters or airspeed indicators. The infamous square case of the BRs, with its four visible fastening screws, reflects the way the airplane instruments are affixed to the panel via four screws in order to make their removal and installation quick and easy. With the BR-01 92 Heritage, Bell & Ross captures the allure of vintage watches and applies it to the square BR “Instrument” concept.
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Yeah, I don’t know why they made an another iPhone app either. It seems, after noticing B&R style clocks on the HTC Hero, that there is a real fetish for interface designers over these things. That’s the only way I can explain it.
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I’m totes down with B&R and this seems like a step in the right direction. This BR03, a bit smaller than the BR04, has a large steel bracelet that I always though was missing on the Bell&Ross jumbos.
ABlogtoRead has the full dope on the watch.
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Not content with making me happy with their GMT, Bell&Ross has just released this weird piece for Colette, some sort of artsy shop in Paris. This is some kind of tribute to Airborne Rangers, I suspect, with a little skull and two sword hands. Not sure how much it would cost in Earth money but I’m willing to bet a few grand.
Finally, a B&R I can stand behind. I love B&R. I love GMTs. This is like two great tastes that taste great together.
This new model is a bog standard GMT with a stationary central bezel – which means you can’t change the 24-hour markings – and a movement that will move the hour hand back and forth to show the local time as well as the time at home.
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Just in time for the holidays we have a new Bell&Ross watch designed for the French Air Force. As you see, they’ve stuffed the same quartz movement you’ll find in the Breitling Emergency into what I’d say is a very beefy and actually quite stunning case. I’ve been hard on B&R lately, but this is a nice move back into sanity.
I’d say this one is about $6,000.
If you know me you know I love me some watches. I especially like Bell & Ross, the aviation-themed, pie-plate-sized watches that gave new meaning to “Wow, that’s a big watch.” Now, however, B&R has added a ring of beautiful jewels around the rim and made these things out of ceramic, officially tugging the brand out of the realm of “cool and utilitarian” into the world of “my Chihuahua ate my Hermes watch so no I need something big and flirty.”
Sure, B&R can’t ride this design forever but for them to put this bling into their line is a clear indication that these watches have just about ridden their wave. Here’s hoping they bring out something cooler than the Instrument series because I can honestly say that of all the brands B&R has been my favorite thus far.
Bell & Ross makes monster watches and this is their latest. It’s has both a tourbillion — the odd spinning thing that rotates ones per hour and ostensibly offsets the effects of gravity — and a Miniteur. A Miniteur is like a chronometer but it measures tens of minutes and minutes and not hours, minutes, and seconds. Why you would need this is a mystery, but it sure looks like you could get into it and drive it. No, you can’t afford it. Neither can I. Neither can God. There’s actually another version, below, sans Tourbillion, that God could potentially afford.
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B&R sent me their BR02 to manhandle but I couldn’t do an official review simply because this was a show model and had no guts. Now that the initial sadness has worn off, I am happy to report that the BR02 is a pretty cool watch. It’s styled on the Instrument Series but is specially designed for underwater maneuvers. The band is rubber and the lugs flow into the edges of the band, ensuring a snug fit. The face is quite readable — except for the tiny date window — and it feels quite solid. Expect this bugger to end up in the $4000 range, but it could go lower. Cool stuff.
I’ve been kind of watch-depressed after losing my Omega at the hands of DHL. Bell&Ross came out with a ceramic model of the BR03. That’s nice, right?
