BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Bell & Ross are renowned for their square designs and their no-nonsense attitude towards having a bit of fun; our most recent hands-on with a watch of theirs is evidence of that. For 2025, Bell & Ross’ novelties offer something for everyone whilst capitalising upon that iconic look.
BR-05 in 36mm
The BR-05 is a great collection, in my opinion, as it’s well-built and looks great. With that said, nearly all of the watches so far have been quite chunky, so these new 36.0mm x 8.6mm watches will be a breath of fresh air for some.
Four new watches are coming to the market soon, of which three we have pictures of. There’s your classic black dial watch, a fetching silver dial version, the mother of pearl which is my favourite, and the last one which we don’t have live photos of is the blue dial version. All of these watches are clean and easy to read with SuperLumiNova for night reading too. All the watches have the self-winding calibre BR-CAL.329 inside which has a 54-hour power reserve. All watches are 100m water resistant.
The price of all of these watches is £3,900, including VAT. In USD, it’s $4,300 excluding tax.
BR-03 Skeleton Grey Steel, BR-03 Skeleton Ceramic & BR-03 Skeleton Lum Ceramic
The BR-03 is a stalwart of the Bell & Ross collection, and it mixes their square case with lots of interesting and innovative ideas.
The BR-03 range has been updated to include three new watches. The first is the BR-03 Skeleton Grey Steel, which is very eye-catching thanks to its shiny case and minimalist dial offering views to the movement. That movement is the new BR-CAL.328 which Bell & Ross designed and which is made exclusively for this watch, although they haven’t said who made it – it could well be Kenissi as they’ve made a fair number of movements for them. Anyway, the satin-finished steel case measures 41.00mm x 9.65mm with 100m water resistance, and this watch costs £4,990 with VAT. The US price is $5,600 pre-tax.
The BR-03 Skeleton Ceramic follows a similar vibe to the Grey Steel but takes it a little darker with that black ceramic case. This watch is slightly thicker measuring 41.0mm x 10.6mm, I can only think that the reason for this size difference is the ceramic case needing extra material to be as strong as the steel one, but that’s just a theory. What’s not a theory is the comfort of this thing, which is greater than the steel watch (which is a comfortable watch) thanks to that lighter case. The price of this one is £5,500 including VAT. In the USA it’s priced at $5,990 before taxes.
The BR-04 Skeleton Lum Ceramic is the most unique watch of the three, thanks entirely to Bell & Ross’ enthusiasm for SuperLumiNova. They’ve applied it to the dial in such a way that it enhances the already interesting appearance of the dial. It loses the huge Arabic numerals and wide hands, but it gains that interesting appearance. This watch is also made from ceramic but this time measures 41.00mm x 11.25mm, I have no idea why this one is thicker still, but the wide rubber strap means it’s comfy on the wrist. The price is £5,900 with VAT, and in the US it’s $6,600.
BR-05 Chrono Patrouille de France
The last watch celebrates France’s aerobatic display team, the Patrouille de France. The sky blue dial with red and white details matches the team’s colours and accentuates the bold design they went for. The BR-05 Chrono is not new, of course, but it’s easy for Bell & Ross to re-work its design to look brand new; some watches just end up looking awkward.
The watch in the photos has a remarkably stiff leather strap that will no doubt soften as it ages, but a steel bracelet is also available. Inside the 42.00mm x 14.25mm stainless steel case (water resistant to 100m) is the self-winding calibre BR-CAL.326, which has a 60-hour power reserve and a satisfying ‘click’ action to the chronograph pushers.
The price of one of these on the leather strap is £6,100, and on the bracelet, it’s £6,600. Both prices include VAT. For the USA, it starts at $6,900 on the leather strap and rises to $7,400 on the bracelet.
Which of these new pieces is your favourite? What would you like Bell & Ross to do next? Let us know in the comments!
