For its new BR 03-92 MA-1 limited edition ? unveiled at Baselworld 2019 and featured among the brand’s highlight pieces at last week’s CoutureTime event in Las Vegas ? Bell & Ross looked beyond the cockpit instruments and took its design cues from an iconic piece of aviator apparel, the famous MA-1 flight jacket adopted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. Here’s a closer look.
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Bell & Ross describes the model, with its familiar square case and large, legible Arabic numerals, as its “purest” pilot watch, and thus the ideal stage upon which to pay tribute to the MA-1 “bomber,” whose parachute-derived nylon shell and reversible khaki green and orange design took it from utilitarian military gear in the ’50s to a stylish fashion statement in the ’70s. The 42-mm case is made of dark khaki-colored ceramic, a lightweight and scratch-resistant material. The dial, also khaki-colored, is in the “sandwich” style with two superimposed metal plates, the lower one coated with orange Super-LumiNova that shines through the stenciled, cut-out numerals and indices in the upper layer. The luminous substance also coats the hour and minute hands. Orange, of course, is a color long associated with the military and aviation, and the combo of khaki and orange is a direct reference to the MA-1 jacket.
The strap, made of calfskin leather and fastening to the wrist with a gunmetal-colored PVD steel pin buckle, continues the...