Comparatively speaking, Bell & Ross is still a newer face in the contemporary watch industry. Launched in 1992, right in the middle of the so-called Revival Years of the mechanical wristwatch, the company has managed to establish a strong following and recognizable look thanks to its trademark “square-in-circle” design that is directly inspired by the analog tools found in the dashboards of military airplanes. For its first release of 2019, Bell & Ross has announced a limited edition timepiece that continues to explore the military-grade motif with a light shined on the aesthetics of navigation.

The aptly-named BR 03-92 Bi-Compass uses the design of a vintage radio compass as its distinguishing feature. The layout of the dial is separated into a trio of concentric circles. The innermost zone features a printed triangle coated in blue-green Super-LumiNova that functions as the watch’s hour hand. As time passes, this part of the dial will actually rotate to indicate the changing hour. The middle area features printed hour numerals and indexes in Bell & Ross’ recognizable style in the same blue-green color. There’s also a color-matched date aperture tucked away at 4:30 on this ring.
A steep rehaut with dashes for seconds/minutes separates the middle zone from the final level. This area features Arabic numerals at every 10 second/minute marker and the Bell & Ross logo at 12 o’clock. The dashes on the rehaut and markers on th...