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!

[miner]

I dunno, but anything that says "Do Not Unscrew" ......

Just got to be unscrewed.....

What happens if you do

Nice watch BTW, great review

[jamesthejeweller]

The Screw has something to do with the crown mechanism, but im not entirely sure, if anyone knows what that little tempting screw is, please let me know

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by miner

I dunno, but anything that says "Do Not Unscrew" ......

Just got to be unscrewed.....

What happens if you do

Nice watch BTW, great review

[Mrdi]

Temting screws on the front too.
They are not alligned, though that watch is the coolest , I would be tempted to allign the screws on the face.

[jamesthejeweller]

Yeah , i have been wanting to align them, but i will have to re-tap the holes. ahh it doesn't bother me too much, add character ha!

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Very cool timepiece!

Awesome lume!

I guess the BR01-92 gets a LOT of wrist time!

[frostie]

Cool review

[vivaleduc]

I love that watch and been looking for one...thanks for the review.

[hdman1216]

I have a BR01-97 (Power Reserve) and love it. I keep it in my rotation and ALWAYS get numerous comments when I wear it. Most of my watches are large watches and I love all of them.

[BuffaloRolex]

Great looking watch! I'm a fan of B&R...

[BuffaloRolex]

---double post---

[Solar]

I'm just coming across this post now. As I worte in anotehr part of TRF, I may be getting a late Christmas prezzie in the form of a Bell & Ross watch, my choice of style but not able to trade that for a Rolex, etc.

As such, I was soliciting opinions about the brand, any real life experiences. On my post in the non-Rolex watch posts, SLR Dude posted an outstanding pix of a B&R instrument watch on a leather strap, looked outstanding.

I see that B&R uses ETA 2436 and the 92 as well depending in their watches. They have a new diver out, the BR-02, worth Googling BR-02 or going to the B&R site and looking at that watch. Very tool looking, with the inner rotating bezel and the massive lume dots or Arabic numbers depending on the model. The big lume dots remind me of the vintage Rolex models that used the maxi dot without the white gold surround, very 70's tool looking.

Any other experiences or observations are welcome for me,

Chris

[SLRdude]

Ha!
No idea how I missed this thread!

Great review of a great watch!
Would you happen to have a wrist shot of yours?
The one that my friend Ben has is the 42mm model, and I see that you have the 46mm one.

[pnsji]

I am a big fan of this wonderful piece as well. Nothing like a carbon fiber dial with yellow hands!

[timackerman]

I have to admit, at first when I came across a B&R watch, I thought it was ugly. But the more I look at them, and appreciate their simplicity, the more I like them

[mickeydainish]

sumthin different.... cool man!! :-)

[cody p]

very nice, but i still want to know the purpose of the screw on the caseback?

[eric23]

Nice Watch, Looks Great!