Bell & Ross, a watch brand whose designs are rooted in aviation history, has in recent years entered into partnerships to produce aeronautically engineered land vehicles that the company in turn used as design templates for limited-edition timepieces ? like the B-Rocket motorcycle in 2014, the AeroGT concept automobile in 2016, and last year’s Bellytanker. At this year’s Baselworld, the concept came full circle with the launch of an actual flying machine, called the BR-Bird, and its accompanying aeronautically inspired watches, the BR V1-92 and BR V2-94 Racing Birds.
The Bell & Ross BR-Bird high-speed plane
The BR-Bird aircraft (above) is the brainchild of Bell & Ross co-founder and creative director Bruno Belamich. A high-speed, single-seat propellor-engine plane designed to compete in the famous Reno Air Races, it is made entirely with high-tech materials such as graphite, fiberglass, titanium, and aluminum alloy and powered by a V12 Rolls Royce Falcon engine on a Merlin base (the Merlins were used in the legendary Spitfire military planes). With a length of 9.5 meters and a broad wingspan of 10.31 meters, the BR-Bird reaches a maximum speed of 909km/h, or Mach 0.73. As with the watches released alongside the B-Rocket, AeroGt, and Bellytanker, the Racing Bird models (offered as either a three-hand automatic, the BR V1-92, below, and as a chronograph, the BR v2-94) display the design influence of the aircraft. Bell & Ross BRV1-92 Racing Bird Aut...