Here’s a first look at the new Bell & Ross WW1-92 Military watch. Wait! Don’t confuse this watch with the one you saw just two days ago — in fact this watch is the second of two “WW1-92″ watches that Bell & Ross unveiled this week (did you miss the Bell & Ross WW1-92 Heritage I showed you a couple days ago — check it out here). The differences between this watch — the WW1-92 Military — and the WW1-92 Heritage– are minimal. Basically any B&R watch with the “Heritage” tag means that it will come with the B&R Heritage-style strap. This WW1-92 Military piece has more natural/suede-style strap and white numerals/dial markings. See the side-by-side below.
Bell & Ross WW1-92 Military Watch
45mm blasted steel case with grey PVD finish, automatic mechanical movement (ETA 2892(
Bell & Ross WW1-92 Heritage (left) and WW1-02 Military Watches (right)
Bell & Ross has unveiled a new piece in its “Heritage” collection, this one the WW1-92. The dial design on this pilot-style watch is notable in that it is designed for short flights of under an hour, in which the minute display became the focus of the observer. Thus, the minute numerals are prominent along the outer edge of the dial, and the hour numerals moved to a smaller circle within. Though the WW1-92 is a nice looking watch, I find it’s case size a bit large at 45mm and the “heritage” style straps a bit too narrow for my tastes. Given a choice, I’d step it up a notch and go for the Glashutte Original Senator Navigator as my watch of choice for this particular design.
Bell & Ross WW1-92 Heritage
45mm steel case with grey PVD finish, automatic mechanical movement (ETA), “Heritage” strap
pic: Acquire
Continuing my previews of the ONLY WATCH 2011 Charity auction (Fall 2011), here’s the Bell & Ross contribution: the “Casino Watch.” Unfortunately the preliminary renderings leave a bit to the imagination, but you get the idea, right? As you can see below, the watch dial a mini-roulette wheel. Yes, it keeps time, too — the “0″ number on the roulette wheel indicates the hours (there are 12 little diamonds on the outer edge of the dial for standard timekeeping), the roulette ball indicates the minutes. Most cool, however, is the roulette spinner which will rotate once every 60 seconds. OK, maybe it’s a bit cheesy, but because it is for a good cause I’m not going to come down too hard on B&R this time.
For more, see the running list of the ONLY WATCH watches I have previewed HERE>
Bell & Ross Casino Watch for ONLY WATCH 2011
Unique Piece
Pink Gold Case
“Only Watch” is a biennial charity auction of one-of-a-kind watches created by many of the most renowned watch brands in Switzerland. This exceptional event is held every two years in Monaco during the Monaco Yacht Show and is under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II. All the proceeds from Only Watch go to support Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research which is why many of these watches go extraordinarily high prices.
Starting today Perpetuelle will begin its coverage of Only Watch 2011. Stay tuned in because over the next few months, you will get to see awesome “piece unique” watches from each of the participating brands for the 2011 event:
Click through to see our in-depth preview of each watch:
- Harry Winston Midnight GMT Tourbillon
- Patek Philippe Ref 3939A Minute Repeater
- Urwerk UR-103 “Phoenix”
- Romain Jerome “Rock the Rock”
- Hublot Oceanographic 4000m dive watch
- MB&F HM-4 “Flying Panda”
- TAG Heuer “Monaco Mikrograph”
- Bell & Ross Pink Gold “Casino”
- Louis Vuitton Tambour Diver Chronograph
- Blancpain Villeret Grand Decoration
- Piaget Altiplano Skeleton
- Breguet Reveil Musical Watch
- Audemars Piguet Gstaad Classic
- Jaquet Droz Petit Heure Minute
- Van Cleef & Arpel “From the Earth to the Moon” Watch
- Girard-Perregaux ww.TC
- Corum Golden Bridge Automatic Titanium
- Vulcain Anniversary Heart Watch
- Chanel J12 Marine Watch
- Franck Muller “Totally Switzerland”
- Ulysse Nardin Freak Diavolo
- Vacheron Constantin “Dove” Watch (M.C. Escher-inspired)
- Zenith El Primero “Destro” watches
- Montblanc Villeret 1858 Pulsograph
- Ikepod Red Hourglass by Marc Newson
- Bovet Fleurier, Celsius, Chaumet, Chopard, De Bethune, Delacour, De Witt, Frédérique Constant, Hermès, Laurent Ferrier, Maurice Lacroix, Richard Mille
Only Watch 2011 will be held September 24, 2011 and managed by watch auction house Antiquorum. But you don’t have to wait this long — because part of the excitement leading up to the September 24, 2011 event is the release of each participating brand’s special edition watch.
ONLY WATCH 2009
If you are interested in looking back, I covered the Only Watch 2009 auction extensively including blogging about several of my favorites inlcluding: Piaget Emperador Coussin, MB&F Sage Vaughn HM-2, Bovet 3-in-1 Mona Lisa Watch, Tourneau Jump Hour, Louis Vuitton Tambour, Chanel J12 Joallerie with pink sapphire, and Blancpain 500 Fathoms. You can see all 34 “Only Watch 2009″ watches here on the Perpeuelle World Watch Forum. The Only Watch 2009 auction was hosted by Patrizzi & Co.
Bell & Ross has announced two new BR02 dive watches that will be available for wrists everywhere starting August 2011. Carrying a 1,000 meter water resistance rating, helium escape valve, and a unidirectional inner rotating bezel with a photoluminescent reference point, these BR02′s offer dive watch specs in a couple of distinct looks. The movement is a standard, though reliable, Swiss automatic mechanical (ETA 2892). The Bell & Ross BR02 Steel with carbon fiber dial is priced at $3,500, and the black PVD BR02 Phantom is $4,000. Unfortunately I don’t see much here to get me excited — but how about you? I think that Omega and others have more to offer dive watch enthusiasts who are buying here in the mid-to-higher end range.
Bell & Ross BR02 Dive Watches
44mm steel case (brushed or black PVD), carbon fiber dial (“Clou de Paris” pattern dial on the Black PVD model)
Baselworld 2011 continues!
Bell & Ross is a brand with amazing clarity of purpose. It knows what kind of watches it wants to make (Military-inspired “instrument watches”), and it makes them with unwavering comittment to this concept. Much to its credit, the brand very clearly works very hard to ensure strong consistency across the Bell & Ross product line. I believe that this approach is a good one, as it clearly defines the brand in the eyes of the consumer. When you go for a Bell & Ross, you know exactly what you are getting. This year, the brand has unveiled a couple new watches that I think most watch enthusiasts will appreciate. The WW1 Watch and the PW1 Pocket Watch are, in essence, one in the same. The WW1, or “Wrist Watch 1″, is basically the forward evolution of the PW1, or “Pocket Watch 1″. Bell & Ross President Carlos Rosillo very adeptly explains all of this in the short video below — I hope you will take 3 minutes to watch it because it really highlights the “story behind” the new Bell & Ross PW1 and WW1 watches for 2011. Enjoy!
Bell & Ross WW1 Watch and PW1 Pocketwatch, as explained by B&R President Carlos Rosillo
2011 Bell & Ross WW1 Watch and PW1 Pocketwatch
In 2011, Bell & Ross will be adding a two new models to its Vintage Collection: the Vintage Original Carbon (BR 123) and Carbon Chrono (BR 126). Last year we saw the “carbon” case (steel with black PVD treatment) used for the popular Vintage Heritage watches (live look here), and this year the carbon case goes to the standard aka “Original” Vintage collection. While nice looking watches, the one thing I will say is that these watches really, really need a strap upgrade – the plain brown leather strap is just pitiful. Otherwise, an attractive set of watches if you are a B&R fan.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Official Baselworld 2011 Feed as more of the newest and hottest watches of 2011 are unveiled between now and the end of March.
Bell & Ross Vintage Original Carbon
41mm “carbon” (steel black PVD) case, Swiss “ETA” automatic mechanical movements, 100m water resistance
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Almost Halloween…
Bell & Ross has crossed its BR01 Airborne watch with its BR01 Tourbillon to come up with this deathly looking limited edition piece. The watch has regulator-style time display (hours, minutes, seconds all with their own hand), with the tourbillon cage functioning as the seconds hand (60 second rotation). There is also a power reserve display, and a torque indicator which helps you not to overwind the manual-wind movement. Limited edition of 20 pieces, priced at $150,000 each. By the way, if you want to see more “regulator” watches or learn more about what exactly a “regulator” watch is, check out this post about the Milos Zetios Regulator in which I cross reference several other regulator watches and have a “Did You Know” section about regulators.
Bell & Ross BR01 Tourbillon Airborne Limited Edition Watch
46mm DLC-coated titanium case, tourbillon (small seconds), regulator, black stringray strap
Sharp looking watch…but price is too proud…
I looked at some of the new and very good-looking Bell & Ross Vintage collection models back in July. Now Bell & Ross has extended the collection with a couple of “Vintage Officer” models (chronograph and non-chrono) that are a slight step-up from the “non-Officer” versions. The not so obvious changes vs. the “non-Officer” model are the use of a polished case instead of brushed, and a black alligator strap instead of calfskin. There was also a very minor design change to the 60-second chronograph subdials, but this could just be a discrepancy in the press photos. Naturally, the price will also be slightly higher — maybe around $5,000 instead of $4,200 for the non-Officer.
All in, I think the changes make the Bell & Ross Vintage Officer chronograph a more desirable watch than its subordinate — definitely more befitting of an Officer. On the whole, it’s a great looking watch with a reliable movement, but I think it is overpriced. I think the Omega Speedmaster Seamaster Planet Ocean with co-axial movement would be a much better purchase and for a meaningfully lower price.
Bell & Ross Vintage Officer Chronograph
41mm polished steel case, ETA 2894 movement, 100m water resistance, black alligator strap
Fixed hand, rotating discs…
This is a cool new limited edition watch from Bell & Ross, the BR 01-02 Compass. A similar version of this watch was actually previewed a couple of years ago at Baselworld. You will immediately notice that this is not a normal watch — in fact the design is inspired by old school aviation navigation instruments in that the watch keeps time via one fixed point at the top of the dial. It’s actually quite simple if you take a moment to examine it.
What time is it?
10:10 of course!
I really like this concept of telling time. Rather than two hands moving around a dial, the dial — or in this case two dials — move around a single hand (ie a fixed point). Thus there are two concentric disks which independently rotate to reflect the hours (outer dial) and minutes (inner dial). Like this:
Cool, eh? Production will be limited to 500 pieces, available October 2010. Price is approximately $5,500 / £3,400.
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