Third landing of Bell & Ross at Only Watch 2013
Always having one or more effects in its pockets, the French brand from La Chaux-de-Fonds originally introduces not one but six exclusive watches in a Flight Instruments Box looking like a cockpit.
By David Richard
That it took only eight years to be recognised as a watchmaking emblem via its famous BR 01 “instrument” isn’t the least achievement of Bell & Ross. In fact, every watch is an instrument when it comes to this brand. A position that the exclusive selection dedicated to Monaco defends at full throttle.
The success of niche watches
An oversized black dial, 4 visible screws, a round bezel, impressive and luminescent indexes, a surgical typography and a rubber strap: thus is the civilian state of the BR 01, a man of action’s, rather one in uniform, standard watch.
As soon as it began in 1992, the brand made the adventure watch and the phantasmagorical horizon of the aeronautic, aquatic or spatial fields its speciality. Goodbye frills and welcome readability, reliability, functionality and precision! On the occasion of the launching of its first collection, there was already a special attention paid to a technical sportive segment, which immediately met its public. Such a tour-de-force had the virtue of competing with – while trying to make them obsolete – Panerai, Breitling and Hamilton, the three historical brands of this niche market.
To tally ship clock with wrist scale thus became the main inspiration reference for the brand’s die-hard Swiss Made designers. It is a constant evolution of the functions and the reading modes that resulted in the fact that there are more than 45 models nowadays. Some of them are even equipped with a tourbillon, even if it is debatable whether any special forces unit will have a need for it... By the way, Bell & Ross has motive to be proud via its partnership with the elite troops of the French gendarmerie, the Space Lab mission or because it developed the Hydromax chronograph for an 11 000 metres dive. A background which gives free rein to an unrestrained creativity on the limited series mode of which the brand is very fond of.
Orange: readability prevails
The BR 01 Flight Instruments Box is available in catalogue in a limited edition of 99 copies. Among those, there are six BR 01 models with black steel finish animated with a self-winding ETA movement. Designed in the form of a cockpit’s 6 essential timers, reading time becomes a playful game of dials which is at the same time extremely coded: an attitude indicator, an altimeter, a turn coordinator, a heading indicator, an airspeed and a climb indicator.
The ultra-realistic screens in fine offer a true reading system to non-experts with some well-chosen effects. Such as the three concentric circles indicator make up this function for the Heading Indicator, the big date of the Altimeter or even the Climb’s power reserve.
Sapphire glass for all of them, water resistance to 100 metres and provided with the famous black rubber strap, these watches use orange for Only Watch; a colour favoured in terms of readability. The only thing left is to find an aviator to honour them.
