Bell & Ross Instrument BR01-92

[jamesthejeweller]

November-a Month that drags like teeth across concrete, pretty much a month of cold miserable horizontal misty spitting rain in the U.K, Bleak and grey. Its Also the Month of My birth ha! I have been getting very familiar with my current watch rotation, as of late, usually wearing either the GMT II or Datejust During the week and my gold Navtimer at the weekends. I thought that i would take a risk, a very large 46mm risk, in the form of a Bell & Ross BR01-92. Now this is a formidable watch, the brand has only been around for Pico-second relative to other Brands such as Blancpain, Bregeut, Rolex and Omega, it was formed in 1991, and recently after seeing an article about the Bremont ALT-P, in the AMex Platinum Departures magazine, and other pilots watches, the BR01-92 caught my attention. Its styled like an avionics instrument, and it literally looks like someone had raided the flight deck of a 747 and adapted an altimeter into a wristwatch, its HUGE! I took the plunge and bought one the other day, and i have to say i am thoroughly impressed, i am a seasoned watch enthusiast and i am in total love with anything Rolex, so all my other watches are compared against my Rollies, as they clearly are 'the gold standard', But the way this watch is put together makes you understand what the designers set out to achieve, you do feel like you are wearing an 'instrument' and a useful tool, its simplicity allows it to be unpretentious and to the point, literally this watch tells the time, and if you get mad at someone you can throw it at them and probably kill them without doing any harm to the watch itself. It normally comes from the AD with two straps, Black calfskin leather and a synthetic strap, it is advised to wear the synthetic if you plan to do any underwater maneuvers! It is water resistant to 100m, which is more than satisfactory, and has super-luminova on the oversized hands and minute indexes. The Silver face model has giant hour markings in serif font if Im not mistaken, at 12, 3, 6 and 9 and the anti-reflective crystal adds a purity to the watch as a whole. The reverse of the watch looks and feels like it was laser engraved by god himself, and the inscribed' commandments' on the reverse read in a very complimentary fashion to the styling of the watch, you'll find words which wouldn't look out of place on the turbofan cowling of a Harrier such as "do not unscrew" and "Aviation Type/Military Spec" ha ha! The strap is secured to the watch by 2 (per side) 1.3 mm hex screws, these screws locate into a very satisfying, milled Stainless end link which is attached to the strap, and upon removal from the body case of the watch, the socket where these end links sit is so marvelously engineered its unbearable! I like to take the straps off just so i can appreciate the engineering! The movement is a relatively basic one , it utilises an ETA 2892, which at the moment i cannot find fault in, it is keeping time within +4 seconds a day for me! which is on par with my Navitimer, the small details of the watch make it great, even down to the tang buckle which has BR01 laser engraved, and the whole (stainless steel model) watch is finished in satinised SS with highly polished edges which catch the light. i am in awe! it is definitely a robust big bad boy and Im not going to be afraid to wear it even in the most harsh environments, i reckon it could survive a nuclear blast!
In my opinion, if your looking for a bruiser to wear on a day-to-day basis in extreme conditions then this watch will do you good, its simplicity and purity are its strongest assets!