Bell & Ross

Bruno Belamich, a designer, and Carlos Rosillo, a business graduate, founded Bell & Ross in 1992 as school friends with a shared interest in professional instruments. The early watches were made in partnership with the German manufacturer Sinn, which shaped the brand's technical bias.

Its identity crystallised in 2005 with the BR 01. The design takes an aircraft cockpit instrument — a round dial in a square bezel, secured by four visible screws, with oversized luminous numerals — and puts it on a wrist at 46mm. It is one of the few genuinely new watch shapes of the last thirty years, and it remains the brand's entire visual signature.

The functional argument holds up: legibility, water resistance, and anti-magnetic construction to specifications drawn from aviation requirements. Bell & Ross watches have been issued to French bomb disposal units, air force pilots, and special forces divers.

The range has since expanded in both directions — the smaller BR 03, the vintage-styled BR V line drawing on 1940s military chronographs, and the BR-X experimental series with tourbillons and skeletonised movements.

The company is based in Paris for design and Switzerland for production, and has partnered with Renault's Formula One team and the Alpine marque. Chanel took a significant stake in 2004.

Bell & Ross holds 4 models, from £2,150 to £5,120. Half cost less than £3,155, and a quarter less than £2,525. 3 of 4 are automatic. 2 are stocked by more than one retailer, giving 6 offers in total. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1992

Bruno Belamich and Carlos Rosillo found Bell & Ross.

1994

Early production runs in partnership with Sinn.

2005

The BR 01 brings the cockpit instrument to the wrist.

2011

The vintage-inspired BR V line launches.