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New and reviewed: Bell & Ross BR-X5
Hands-on comprehensive review of the new Bell & Ross new BR-X5, a watch which is available in either a black dial or an ice blue dial.
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Hands-on comprehensive review of the new Bell & Ross new BR-X5, a watch which is available in either a black dial or an ice blue dial.
Quill & Pad
Rarely has the term sports watch been as appropriate as when applied to the BR 03-94 Multimeter from Bell & Ross. This nifty chronograph displays five different scales on the dial to measure various things. In that sense, it is a modern-day version of the vintage chronographs with “snail scales” that did the same, though not in such an elaborate way.
Time+Tide
Watch brand collaborations with jewellers definitely aren’t as in-vogue as they once were, but Nomos’ team-up with Ace Jewelers proves that it should be done more often, as vendors of beautiful objects clearly know how to make a great looking watch. The Club 36 range from Nomos is one of their bestsellers, as its understated … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Ace x Nomos Club 36 Blue Limited Edition appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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Bell & Ross releases a new version of their popular BR 05 Chrono Edición Limitada with a cigar themed watch in rose gold and steel. Comprehensive review.
SJX Watches
Bell & Ross is back with another square instrument watch in black ceramic, but this time taking a sharp turn away from its traditional emphasis on no-nonsense, military-inspired style. Instantly different from the typical B&R; offering, the BR 03-94 Multimeter prioritises colours and shapes, sacrificing the legibility in favour of style – which is not actually a bad thing. Initial thoughts The BR 03-94 Multimeter is ostensibly an instrument. The multi-scale dial can measure heart rate, respirations, or speed of travel for three forms of locomotion. But that’s how it works in theory. It’s filled with an overload of colours, letters, and numbers, providing the wearer with five different scales to go with the chronograph, including three types of tachymetric scales, one each for running, biking, and driving. Admittedly all that is more for aesthetic effect that practical usage. The dial isn’t the easiest to read, especially when driving or biking, but it certainly looks cool. It’s strikingly different from the usual military-inspired look of B&R;, which can be monotonous. Multi-scale The various scales on the dial are highlighted in different colours – orange, bottle green, white, pale green and forest green. And each scale is accompanied by its own base and unit indicator, so the wearer can use the watch as a measuring device when the scale is read in tandem with the running chronograph seconds hand. While the look is poles apart from the fighter jet instrument o...
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Time+Tide
Curiouser and curiouser. Yesterday I posted a story about Anthony “the Blue Wiggle” Field and how he’s been repeatedly spotted wearing the ultimate IT watch, a Patek Philippe Tiffany Blue. The story generated a real buzz on the T+T site as Anthony is, of course, a founding member of the beloved kid’s entertainers, The Wiggles. … ContinuedThe post “I promise I don’t have a real Patek.” OK, this is weird, Anthony the Blue Wiggle insists his watches are fake appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
A month after the one-of-a-kind, orange-crystal skull wristwatch sold for CHF220,000 at charity auction Only Watch 2021, Bell & Ross (B&R;) is unveiling its limited edition counterpart in clear sapphire crystal. With both its case and polygonal skull in clear sapphire crystal, the Cyber Skull Sapphire is powered by a proprietary movement incorporating a simple automaton that drives the skull’s lower jaw as the watch is wound. Initial thoughts With its dark orange visage, the Cyber Skull for Only Watch was the most striking lots of the auction, so it’s no surprise that the brand is returning to the idea with a limited run. Granted the Cyber Skull Sapphire lacks the punch of the orange skull, but it is certainly striking with its stying, size, and airy construction. The look is unashamedly modern and very much over the top. But beyond the aesthetics, the watch also features an interesting movement that was developed from the ground up to form a skull. The base plate is skull-shaped, while the going train was laid out to position the balance right in the middle of the skull’s forehead. Like almost all watches with sapphire crystal cases, the Cyber Skull Sapphire has a six figure price tag, albeit just into six figures at US$117,000. But the Cyber Skull Sapphire is catered for a specific buyer: one who wants an extravagant, hyper-modern aesthetic – and isn’t too bothered about price. And it accomplishes what it sets out to do well, but that specific buyer is also ...
Quill & Pad
Diver’s watches are meant to be rough, tough tool watches, and limited editions are made to cash in on a model’s popularity. The Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver Full Lum is both, yet disproves these paradox presumptions as Martin Green discovered after wearing this watch for a while. What did he think? It's lit!
SJX Watches
Francois-Paul Journe’s creation for Only Watch 2021, the F.P. Journe FFC Blue, sticks to a familiar template. Like prior watches conceived for the biennial charity auction – the tourbillon of 2015, split-seconds chronograph of 2017, and the Astronomic of 2019 – this year’s timepiece has a tantalum case and blue dial. But FFC Blue is a strikingly unique watch – the five-fingered time display is a first in watchmaking. Though it has a conventional round case, the FFC Blue is conceptually closer to the unconventional Vagabondage watches than the brand’s round watches. Short for Francis Ford Coppola, the FFC Blue originated with a question posed to Mr Journe by the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now in 2012. Mr Coppola suggested a watch that indicated the time with human hand. Over the following years Mr Journe worked on the concept, with Mr Coppola suggesting the finger positions to indicate each hour. And now the filmmaker’s idea has been realised as a one-off creation for the charity auction. Though entirely unique compared with F.P. Journe’s other creations, the FFC is powered by the workhorse cal. 1300 of the Octa series Initial thoughts I found the hand-display concept intensely compelling when Mr Journe described it during my visit to Geneva in 2017. In the metal the FFC is equally compelling. It is inventive and appealing. It’s rather large at 42 mm in diameter, though like nearly all F.P. Journe watches it is unusually thin given the c...
SJX Watches
Unveiled two years ago, the BR05 was Bell & Ross’ take on the integrated-bracelet sports watch – probably the hottest genre of watches now. The brand then followed up with a skeleton version and also the twin-counter BR05 chronograph. And now Bell & Ross takes the covers off perhaps the most useful iteration to date – the BR05 GMT. Though a newish arrival to a well-established genre, the BR05 was essentially derived from the brand’s trademark square watch case, a design dating to 2005 that was inspired by instrument panels of fighter jets. But the BR05 diverged from those military origins, acquiring a more refined, slightly retro appearance with its case finishing, a mix of polished and brushed surfaces, as well as an elegant integration of the bracelet. The new GMT sticks to the same design, while adding the utility of a second time zone. Initial thoughts When Bell & Ross (B&R;) offered to loan me a BR05 GMT prototype for a few days, I wasn’t expecting any surprises. But when I first got the watch in hand, I found the fit and finish unexpectedly good. The BR05 has an appealing, tactile feel, stemming from the sharply finished case and appealing design. My initial impressions were positive – the BR05 GMT lives up to the expectations set by its retail price. The best feature of the GMT is something it shares with its siblings in the collection, namely the BR05 case and bracelet. They are well finished and a good look. But the GMT stands out for its simplicity ...
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What's it like to wear a travel watch for the weekend, and go nowhere? We take the newly released Bell & Ross BR05 GMT for a spin, and give you this review.
Time+Tide
Hublot are a brand who love to outdo themselves, as well as outdoing everyone else. With the craze for blue-dialled steel sports watches fading slightly, there’s a chance to pounce on forging the new watch trends for decades to come, and the Big Bang Integral in blue ceramic is a real marker of what the … ContinuedThe post VIDEO: The Hublot Big Bang Integral Blue Ceramic shows the potential future of sports watches appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
As traveling once again becomes an option, it’s a good time to dust off our travel watches or mark the occasion with a new one. And a good start is the recently introduced BR 03-93 GMT from Bell & Ross. While it follows in the footsteps of the watch with the same name launched in 2016, the updated version includes a bidirectional bezel instead of the previously fixed one and a bolder dial/bezel design.
SJX Watches
Though taking the form of its signature aviation-instrument watch, the Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver Military is the latest in a lineage of dive watches that started in 1997. Pilot’s watches are its bread and butter, but Bell & Ross (B&R;) has been making high-spec dive watches almost since its founding in 1992. Five years later it launched the Hydromax, which was created in collaboration with Sinn. Featuring a case filled with incompressible synthetic oil, the Hydromax boasted a staggering water-resistance rating of 11,100 m. Two decades later, B&R; launched the BR 03-92 Diver, which transformed the aviation-instrument case into a diving tool with a 300 m depth rating. First unveiled in steel, and subsequently also in either bronze or ceramic, the newest iteration of the BR 03-92 Diver has a functional olive-green dial that evokes the military inspiration behind many of the brand’s watches. Initial thoughts On the surface, the BR 03-92 Diver Military is seemingly a mere facelift, a new dial for the BR 03-92 Diver Black of 2019. Only the olive-green dial is new – but it makes a difference. While green seems to be the colour du jour for 2021, the olive-drab dial colour underscores the B&R; spirit perfectly. The brand often looks to the military for inspiration – and has made watches for both police and military units in France – while being inclined towards a vintage style, particularly in its round watches. Best described as a retro-military colour that evokes unif...
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Bell & Ross releases its new BR 03-93 GMT watch with a two-tone 24 hour bezel. Borrowing soft drink nomenclature, the red and black bezel or coke bezel, is a more vibrant variant to the earlier BR 03-93 GMT.
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Bell & Ross Vintage BR V2-94 FULL LUM. We took the watch for a week's spin, and give you our hands-on comprehensive review.
SJX Watches
Bell & Ross’ signature BR wristwatch is essentially an aviation instrument in a square case, a style that works well as a military watch, explaining the iterations in camouflage or a fighter jet “heads-up display”. Sometimes associated with airborne troops, the skull is a recurring theme for the BR series, and one that has been continually refined over the last decade. The BR skull watch been redesigned both visually and mechanically, most notably with the proprietary, automaton-skull form movement of two years ago. With the new BR 01 Cyber Skull, the brand has taken a new aesthetic direction with a case and dial that is strikingly modern – polygonal, facetted, and very much like a sci-fi villain – making it vastly different from earlier skull watches that often seemed like nostalgic memento mori. Initial thoughts Bringing to mind Skynet and other technological villains, the Cyber Skull departs from the style of its predecessors that were characterised by an organic skull and elaborate case patterns, essentially a digitised version of the original BR Skull watch. Though simple, the design is done well, with a cohesive aesthetic with the case and dial echoing one another. The case is clearly derived from the original BR-01, but done with more facets and angles, with the polygonal surfaces continuing on the skull and crossbones. The BR 01 Laughing Skull White (left) and the BR 01 Cyber Skull Both the case and skull are made of black ceramic, while the movement ...
SJX Watches
Bell & Ross’ integrated-bracelet sports watch gets an upgrade this year, with the bigger, and arguably better, BR 05 Chrono. The new chronograph retains the design of the basic BR 05, but incorporates 1970s racing-chronograph style with its twin square registers. At the same time, the case design and finish work better on the larger format, but the case of the chronograph is surprisingly thin, resulting in an unusually slim profile on the wrist for what it is. Initial thoughts In the heavily-populated category of integrated-bracelet sports watches, the best value is typically found at the less obvious brands. In its class, the Chopard Alpine Eagle XL Chrono is just excellent, and so is the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner, albeit in a higher price class. In the affordable category, the BR 05 does well. The three-hands-and-date BR 05 is solidly executed and well priced, but looks and feels a little small, despite being 40 mm (and the skeleton version of the same is cooler but pricey). The best feature of the BR 05 is the case, which is neatly finished and nicely detailed, particularly in its price segment. The new BR 05 Chrono fixes the size issue. It retains the same case and finishing, but grows it to 42 mm. The larger size is just right – the proportions that suit the look of the watch. And design-wise the chronograph also works better – and looks more distinct than its time-only counterpart. The chronograph has a 1970s-racing-watch vibe, rather than the fashionable an...
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The genre is the luxury sports watch, chronograph edition. Its latest entrant – the Bell & Ross BR 05 Chronograph. This most recent addition is an extension of the BR 05 family, which began life in 2019 as an automatic watch with many options. We got a detailed hands-on session with the new BR 05Read More
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Bell & Ross introduced the BR 05 in 2019, and made waves in the genre of the luxury steel sports watch as the most affordable. Today, we see the introduction of the latest member to the family - the BR05 Blue Gold.
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Bell & Ross introduces a bright new orange colourway for their popular square diver – the BR 03-02 Diver Orange. Press Release Bell & Ross – the ultimate reference in the world of professional aviation watches – is constantly striving for excellence. Each watch is designed in harmony with the context in which itRead More
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Hands-on review of the Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton Blue - new to the BR luxury steel watch line, with high resolution photographs, wear review and analysis.
SJX Watches
Unveiled just last year, the Bell & Ross BR 05 was yet another luxury-sports watch with an integrated bracelets, but priced more affordably than the average. The flagship model of the line up was the BR 05 Skeleton, an urban and contemporary open-worked watch that’s just been given a new look. The BR 05 Skeleton Blue is essentially the same as last year’s model, but facelifted with a blue-tinted sapphire dial that gives it a punchier look. Initial thoughts The BR 05 is one of my favourites from Bell & Ross. The design blends the key elements of the brand’s flagship military-aviation watches like the BR 01 and BR 03, and incorporates them into a case that is modern and sharp, giving it arguably greater mainstream appeal than the military-inspired pilot’s watches. While the BR 01 and BR 03 are undoubtedly icons, their tool-like appearance and large case – 46 mm and 42 mm respectively – definitely dissuade some. On the other hand, the BR 05 is much more manageable on the wrist at 40 mm wide and 10.4 mm in height. Though it’s smaller than the BR 01 and BR 03, the case is architectural in form, and features myriad textures – polished and satin-brushed surfaces, often separated by polished bevels. The result is a smallish but appealing case that manages to look three-dimensional. I feel that the BR 05 Skeleton works better as a whole, compared to its solid-dial counterparts. The open-worked movement enhances the visual depth of the watch. While the blue-tinte...
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We take a look at the Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu II, a watch created in collaboration with tattoo artist Maxime Buchi, now with a blue dial.
Quill & Pad
Martin Green relishes discovering an exquisite watch in peace and quiet with plenty of time; it's a luxury he appreciates. All the more so in a quiet comfortable salon on the first floor of the Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique at Place Vendôme, Paris, with a Duomètre Sphérotourbillon Blue.
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