Latest Review
Like a moth to the flame, I am drawn to Bell & Ross novelties. I can’t help myself. This is a brand that many have levied legitimate criticisms at. They are too expensive, too big, there are too many releases, and on and on. And I’ll be honest, the core watches, the normal ones (the watches the brand probably needs to sell a ton of to remain in business) do very little for me. But if you put a skull on the dial, or inject luminescent material into the case, or add several timing scales that are almost impossible to read with the naked eye, well, I find those watches hard to resist. My beloved BR-03 Multimeter looms large in my mind here. There are times, even recently, where I’ve thought to myself “I really should sell this – I just don’t wear it much.” But then I take it out of the box, put it on, and am charmed by it once again. How could I part with something so strange?
The latest release from Bell & Ross is not as wild as the Multimeter, or a watch with a skull for a dial, but it’s a few clicks out from the norm, and adventurous in its own way. The BR-05 Skeleton Phantom Ceramic sees the brand playing in a genre that just a few years ago was reserved for only the highest end watches from the highest end brands: integrated bracelet sports watches in ceramic with skeleton dials.
The BR-05, at this point, feels like a mature collection. It’s kind of hard to believe it’s been around for more than five years at this point. But it was, in fact, one of the earlier entrants in the integrated bracelet sweepstakes back in the early months of the pandemic, and unlike some of the other watches released to capitalize on this mega-trend, the BR-05 has stuck around, and the collection includes chronographs and GMTs in a wide variety of dial options and metals, including two-tone variants. Somewhat surprisingly though, they were a bit late to the game with ceramic, only adding it to the collection at last year’s Watches & Wonders event. This new release expands on that idea, with a new skeletonized dial variant in an all black “Phantom” edition to complement the previously issued Skeleton Black Lum Ceramic and Skeleton Black Ceramic.
Unlike those earlier BR-05s, this dial is presented with no notable contrasting elements at all – it’s an old-fashioned blacked out sports watch (if the early 00s qualifies as old-fashioned). Bell & Ross says the watch is inspired by aviation, contemporary art, and modernist design. That’s an interesting soup of influences, for sure. I guess I buy it – it definitely has a contemporary feel to it, as most Bell & Ross watches do. But I’m not sure about aviation, really. How helpful could a blacked out watch where legibility is not exactly a priority be to a pilot? I’m guessing the answer is “not very,” but of course that doesn’t really matter all that much. A watch like this is part of a lineage of recent sports watches that put a sleek aesthetic first, and I think that’s worth celebrating.
To achieve the blacked out look, Bell & Ross employs a dial with a central plate made of black tinted sapphire. That allows the wearer to see the movement, but through a veil of darkness. Everything on the dial appears matte, including the black flange on which the lumed indices are mounted. The lume, of course, is black as well, and meant to glow green in the dark. In the daylight, the lume appears to be a light gray color that offers just enough contrast to keep the watch from being illegible.
The black ceramic case is water resistant to 100 meters and measures 41mm wide and 11.2mm tall. The watch runs on the BR-CAL.322 movement, an automatic caliber with a 54 hour power reserve. It’s mounted to a matching black bracelet in full ceramic, and is also available on a black rubber strap. Such a huge part of the experience of a watch like this is that ceramic bracelet, though, so it’s hard to imagine anyone picking the strap.
The retail price is set at $9,800 on a bracelet, and it’s a limited edition of 500 pieces. That is not an inexpensive watch by any means, but of course it’s important to compare it to similar pieces to get a sense of the value, if any. Formex, of course, is an obvious place to start, and are currently the undisputed kings of value when it comes to integrated bracelet ceramic watches on ceramic bracelets, with Essence Ceramica Skeleton coming in at a little over $4,000. Other than that, however, it’s tough to find a comp in the four figures. We just covered a limited edition Zenith Defy yesterday that approaches $20,000. It has a fancier movement, but that’s still the going rate for this type of thing from a luxury brand.
More information can be found the Bell & Ross website right here.
