In 2014, Bruno Belamich, creative director at Bell & Ross, designed the B-Rocket motorbike, something like a cross between a bike and an aircraft. It was actually built, in cooperation with the Shaw Harley-Davidson Speed & Custom company. This year, 2016, the brand presented a Bell & Ross car, the AeroGT concept car. This in turn was…
The Bell & Ross BR-X1 RS16 is a chronograph that celebrates the brand’s sponsorship of the Renault Sport Formula One team. The watch is named after the R.S. 16 car used for the 2016 season, and it is available for sale only at Grand Prix races. The watch, 45 mm in size, has a case…
Power reserve is important in two ways. In a self-winding watch, when you’re wearing it, you don’t need a long power reserve because you’re constantly winding it with your own movements, and even the minimum power reserve of 38 hours is plenty enough to keep it going when you take the watch off to go…
Everyone loved the MB&F LM1 released in 2010, with its large, theatrical balance wheel suspended over the dial and under the dome-shaped watch glass. This year, MB&F presents a collaboration with French watch designer Alain Silberstein, whose liking for primary colours and shapes produced the engaging MB&F LM1 Silberstein. This piece follows another collaboration, the…
Nostalgic watches are ever successful, as proven by the unending demand for pilot’s watches recalling the pieces supplied to the Luftwaffe in the 1940s. In those days, Alpina was one of the suppliers for the German Kriegsmarine (hence the name KM-710), not surprisingly because the company’s German subsidiary had been transformed into an independent German…
Probably, 90% of all watches that are sold have circular cases. Bell & Ross is therefore an exception to the rule, and they have achieved extraordinary success with their watches whose square cases with four screws at the corners are directly derived from aircraft cockpit instruments. The Bell & Ross BR 03-94 Desert Type chronograph…
When you look at the Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Desert Type automatic, you can’t help thinking of Panerai. The dial is made in three layers, a beige top surface, with cut-out numerals revealing the black luminescent coating at the core of the sandwich construction. During the day, the black luminescent paint contrasts effectively with…
Bell & Ross has signed a new testimonial for their women’s watches, racing driver Carmen Jorda, currently development driver for the Renault Sport Racing team. In the photo below she is wearing the BR S Diamond Eagle, a watch presented at Baselworld 2016, and the brand’s latest women’s watch. Bell & Ross announced their partnership…
Watches by Mido often have an architectural inspiration, at times quite obvious, at times difficult to perceive. In this piece, there are a lot of details from London’s famous clock tower. It was born from a competition between three designers, Eric Giroud, Lorenzo Vallone and Sébastien Perret, commissioned to design a watch on the Big…
Mido is one of the brands battling at the entry-level area of the market, and as it is a Swatch Group company it has the advantage of having access to the latest ETA movements. In this case, the Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure is equipped with the Mido Calibre 60, or the ETA A05H31, an updated…
The Mido Ocean Star Captain Titanium is not the cheapest entry-level diving watch around, but it has some nice characteristics. With 20 bar/200 metre water resistance it’s perfectly at home underwater, and its bracelet with diver’s extension makes it feasible for use on a wet suit; the rather smooth bezel fluting and the date and…
Mido is working hard to add value to its watches without increasing their price. The Mido Baroncelli Calibre 80 Chronometer Si is a classic dress watch, 40 mm in diameter and very slim, with a COSC-certified movement providing 80 hours power reserve, at a price starting from €1,050, so about €100 more than the Mido…
The Mido Baroncelli Heritage 33mm is an attractive piece in 33 mm case size, perfect for women and very slim at 6.85 mm. The case is in steel or rose PVD-coated steel, with dial in grained ivory finish or mother-of-pearl. In the mother-of-pearl version, the hour markers are small diamonds. Hour and minute hands have…
OK, it doesn’t have the prestige of a Piaget, but the Mido Baroncelli Heritage is nonetheless admirably thin at 6.95 mm, and works very well as a dress watch at a price of €880 in steel and €980 in rose gold PVD-coated steel. It was launched in 2016 to mark the 40th anniversary of the…
When high street fashion brands diversify into watches, they are generally quartz pieces, as in the case of brands such as Tory Burch and Michael Kors, even Versace, but some brands are showing interest in mechanical watches. An important player in this area is Fossil Group, an American company who make watches for a wide…
The Khaki collection by Hamilton is based on military watches that the company made for the U.S. during the Second World War. This year, three all-black Khaki watches have been introduced, this automatic chronograph, a day-date watch, and a quartz watch. The chronograph has Khaki Field hands coated with grey SuperLuminova, and applied hour markers.…
For Hamilton, the first Face 2 Face presented in 2013 was a great success. That watch had an oval case that swivelled horizontally, so that you could choose between a time-only face and a chronograph face. Each had its own movement. The new Jazzmaster Face 2 Face II is different because though it has the…
This year, Romain Gauthier has given his Logical One a new series of cool looks. The watch remains the same, with its constant-force escapement based on a chain with ruby links, an eccentric pair of dials for hours, minutes and seconds, a balance in full view, and a pusher for winding. But its aesthetics have…
Yesterday, Girard-Perregaux announced that they will be returning to Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in 2017. This fair, which takes place every year in January, is run by Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. “As a founding member of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, Girard-Perregaux naturally regains its position alongside the most prestigious brands…
Logical One BTG is a variant by Romain Gauthier of his Logical One. It is a five-piece limited edition, with black titanium ADLC (Amorphous Diamond-Like Carbon)-treated case and anthracite ADLC mainplate, and subdials for time indications in blue enamel. The pusher at 9 o’clock, used to wind the watch, and the crown, are in white…