Bell & Ross’s philosophy has always been “to create watches of a professional vocation for which legibility, functionality, accuracy and reliability are the priority”. Astronauts, pilots, divers and bomb disposal experts all count among Bell & Ross ’s clients and the brand works together with them to make sure that their watches can withstand such things as exceptional temperatures, violent accelerations and dangerous pressures.

The new Vintage Original Carbon Collection fits all these criteria with extremely legible and functional features. The brand’s highly identifiable white luminescent Arabic numerals, index markers and hands are, as always, combined with a jet black dial. But it isn’t just the colour contrast that helps readability; anti-glare sapphire crystals and a mat black carbon finish, inspired by aviation instrumentation panels, help to optimize the reading of the time during both the day and the night.

BR123, BR126

“The Vintage Original Carbon is a perfect ad-dition to the Vintage Collection,” says Roberto Passariello, Director of Marketing and Com-munication, Bell & Ross. “In fact, it is probably the first one we should have introduced! It incorporates into our Vintage Collection the elements that made our iconic BR 01 so famous: black carbon case, black dial…the look and feel of the cockpit. We think it is a perfect watch for people who want to own a real classic.”

The classic 41mm round case comes in black PVD with a steel finish and is fitted with an ultra-curved and highly-resistant sapphire crystal, giving the watch a refined vintage look. On the inside there are two quality Swiss automatic movements from ETA: An hours, minutes, seconds and date version for the BR123 and a chronograph movement for the BR126. Both timepieces are water resistant to 100 metres, have a brown calfskin strap and a black PVD steel finish buckle.

Source: Europa Star April - May 2011 Magazine Issue