BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
2026’s racing season is well underway with the opening of the FIA Rally-Raid season. Rally-Raid is a long-distance, cross-country rally, with the races lasting anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, and with hundreds of miles a day being covered. That last one, the two weeks of racing with hundreds of miles covered a day, is the Dakar Rally, which is often considered the most gruelling and unforgiving race of them all. To drive in something like that and compete successfully, you need something tough, something that can take it all on, and few names in that department are as well respected as the Land Rover Defender, which is competing in the ‘Stock’ category in 2026. Bell & Ross has teamed up with Team Defender Rally as their official timing partner, which is on-theme for a brand that has always been about durability and functionality at heart: exactly what you want when competing in the Dakar Rally.
The cars being used are called the Defender D7X-R. Unlike most rally vehicles, which are bespoke-built from the ground up while wearing familiar bodywork, the D7X-Rs begin life in the Defender’s Nitra Manufacturing Centre in Slovakia, where the road-going cars are built. The teams start with the Defender OCTA, the most pumped-up, most hardcore version of the iconic off-roader, which is equipped with a fire-breathing BMW-sourced 4.4L V8 making up to 635bhp. They’re then sent to the Defender Rally team in the UK to be reworked and tuned to the rally’s requirements, which includes upgrading cooling, suspension travel (within limits) and fitting different tyres and a roll cage. Part of the ‘Stock’ category means they aren’t allowed to swap out things like the engine, gearbox and drivetrain for bespoke gear you couldn’t buy, meaning these rally-spec cars share their core parts with the Defender OCTA, which you can buy – if you have the money, of course.
The watches issued to the team are Bell & Ross’ BR-X3 Black Titanium, which we first looked at last year when it was unveiled. The BR-X3 combines their iconic square case, rooted in aviation but with a motorsport-centric look, made of grade 2 titanium with a mix of a sandblasted finish and a black DLC finish on some components. Measuring 41mm x 13.3mm, the BR-X3 isn’t too large, and the wide rubber strap will allow it to hug the wrist easily.
Their straps are high-quality too, as I found out in my review of the BR-03 Astro last year. Inside the BR-X3 is the self-winding calibre BR-CAL.323, which is developed and manufactured by Kenissi specifically for them. It has a 70-hour power reserve and a COSC chronometer certificate. It even comes with a five-year warranty. The price for one of these is $7,900. We don’t know how much the D7X-R costs. Probably a lot, if you could buy one. The regular Defender OCTA, however, seems to start at around $155,000.
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