Tag: BR 03-92 CERAMIC
BR 03-92 CERAMIC
It’s quite easy to spot a Bell & Ross watch; even at a bit of a distance. Their square case design has become the distinguishing design element of their most popular watches over the years. The BR03-92 Diver Ceramic 42mm is no different other than the fact that is their first square dive watch.
There has been a growing trend wherein which many watchmakers have been designing and producing watches that are either completely black or nearly all black. As to what exactly triggered this trend, your guess is as good as mine, but this certainly allowed for some incredible watch designs.Another design trend in the past decade involved the use of matte black. You will see it in on some high-end sports cars as well as in the watch industry. Couple that with the swagger of scratch-resistant ceramic and Bell & Ross has the trifecta with this model making it attractive to a huge variety of watch enthusiasts and style-savvy shoppers.
Bell & Ross has always had a knack for choosing great accent colors on their dials. This watch, which is reference # BR0392-D-BL-CE/SRB, is part of a larger collection of BR03-92 watches and uses white, stainless steel for the hour markers and minute track, and the slightest hint of orange on the hour hand and water resistance depth rating. The diving bezel rotates unidirectionally and is made of a matte black ceramic material with white markers and a thick triangle at the start position. The inner dial is a smooth matte black with applied stainless-steel luminous hour markers.
The luminous hour markers differ in shape with an oblong oval-shaped hour marker for the 3 and 9 o’clock positions a unique 12 and 6 o’clock hour marker and round hour markers for the remaining positions.
Between the 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock position on the dial is a round date window which uses a white sans serif font for the day of the month. Adjacent to the date window is the words ‘Automatic Water Resistant’ in white with the water resistance depth beneath it in orange. The BR0392-D-BL-CE/SRB comes on a black rubber strap which flares out at the lugs to accommodate the width of the square case and tapers off towards the buckle to make for comfortable wear. This watch also arrives with a black NATO strap.
The BR03-92 Diver Ceramic in Matte Black is delivered with a PELI water-resistant case. This model is powered by the 25-jewel BR-CAL.302 automatic movement which beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour and has a 38-hour power reserve.
At the risk of borrowing a somewhat cliché, famous turn of phrase, it was Henry Ford who reportedly once said a customer could have a Model T painted in “any color he wants, so long as it is black.” Granted, the black watch might not be destined for the “everyman” as the Model T once was, but I’d also argue that when done right, the black watch occupies a much more permanent and important property in watchmaking than a passing fad, as many might have purported during the height of the DLC/PVD craze of the early aughts. It’s why I’d also argue that Bell & Ross doesn’t get enough credit for elevating the black-cased watch to an art form — because, as we’ve since learned, it takes a lot more than just PVD-coating a case to make something that is equal parts stealthy and low-key sinister, but as classic and easy-wearing as its stainless steel equivalent. Nowhere is this more evident than the French tool watchmaker’s latest addition to its 42mm square-cased line: the ceramic BR03-92 Bi-Compass, unveiled at Baselworld earlier this year.