Bell & Ross Expands their BR 03 Dive Watch Collection

Bell & Ross has significantly expanded their lineup of BR 03 divers this week, launching a total of five new references in the collection of sports watches inspired by aircraft instrumentation. The BR 03 line has been the subject of many incremental upgrades over the past year, and just as we saw with the pilot’s watches, these divers seem to be operating under the philosophy of “less is more” when it comes to making changes in the lineup. 

The BR 03, and Bell & Ross square watches in general, have always been a bit of a cult object, loved all out of proportion by their fans. The divers are a particularly strange subset within the product line. The “pilot” and “diver” aesthetics rarely match up, but there’s something almost logical here about an overbuilt, square watch designed to get wet. Somehow, we can take the instrument cluster aesthetic inspiration out of the equation once we’re told we’re dealing with a dive watch. What we’re left with is my favorite type of Bell & Ross: something that’s just simply and deeply strange, a watch that feels like it shouldn’t exist but has an obvious appeal anyway. 

The 42mm divers introduced this week come in five variants, which, as you’d expect, progress from fairly banal to positively strange. There are three steel references with white, blue, and black dials. These, as you can probably surmise, are the more straightforward watches in the collection. They have the same general appearance of an aviation focused BR 03, but with the addition of a dive bezel and the removal of the signature Bell & Ross oversized numerals at the cardinal positions. 

The new models have a selection of carefully chosen aesthetic updates, including the use of a new typeface and slightly reworked hands. The bezel inserts are now ceramic, and water resistance is a full 300 meters. They also feature the newer BR-CAL.302-1 movement, which has over 50 hours of power reserve on a full wind.  

In addition to the steel models (which are updates to previously issued BR 03-92 divers) Bell & Ross has also unveiled a pair of brand new references, each of which push on the brand’s aesthetic boundaries a little harder, and will surely be collector and fan favorites for being just a little out of the ordinary compared to the standard issue. Both of these references are in ceramic cases, once with a black dial and full matte treatment (the aptly named “Matte Ceramic”) and the other is the latest entry in the brand’s ongoing Full Lum collection. The new BR 03 Diver Full Lum Ceramic distinguishes itself with its lumed dial in bright blue lume as opposed to the more common green. The hour markers and hands are in a contrasting shade of green lume (as are the indications on the bezel) and are outlined in black to make them easier to see in well lit situations. 

The new Bell & Ross BR 03 dive watches are available now. The retail price on the steel variants is set at $4,400. The Black Matte Ceramic is $4,990, and the Full Lum Ceramic is priced at $5,400. Bell & Ross