Bell & Ross celebrate 30th anniversary with aircraft-inspired watch designs
Celebrating 30 years young, the design-forward Parisian upstart Bell & Ross ramps up its military-spec utility by 1.21 gigawatts
Piaget’s Polo 79 may have the flowing teak decks of Monaco marinas in mind, but it says everything of today’s catholic watchmaking landscape that the opposite can also be true.
One new piece draws inspiration from the sharp edges of stealthier, more airborne craft – specifically the F-117 Nighthawk, which disrupted modern warfare as we know it during the first Gulf War. It’s fitting, given Bell & Ross’s 30 year provenance ticking beneath the camouflaged cuffs of countless military and civic-security operatives.
The new BR 03 Cyber Ceramic pictured here is a sign of the Parisian marque’s pursuit of professional utility, hand-in-hand with technical sophistication, all the while sporting that signature monochrome aesthetic cool (Chanel is a minority stakeholder).
The Cyber’s high-tech faceting immediately evokes the lean sculpture of the ‘furtif’ class of airframe: spy planes, drones and strategic bombers whose sharp-edged fuselages reflect radio waves, even at high altitude.
Pushing the concept of stealth invisibility further, Bell & Ross has chosen to ‘openwork’ the dial and main components of its mechanical self-winding movement, the BR-CAL.383 calibre, with positively weaponised 3D skeletonising, all in utility-belt-worthy Bat-finish.
“Grinding [the ceramic] with diamond powder made it possible to resurface the facets, like jewellers cutting a precious stone. To preserve the purity of the design, the horns have disappeared, and the housing for the rubber strap has been cut into the case”, explains Bruno Belamich, Creative Director and co-founder of Bell & Ross.
£12,200 from bellross.com
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