Bell & Ross WW2 Bomber Regulateur – BaselWorld 2012 Replica Expensive

The chronograph buttons are extremely easy “pump” design pushers, which are small and unobtrusive. This is another among the design elements that provides the watch a very vintage look, and borrows heavily from the early Valjoux 72 moves as seen on early Rolex Daytonas. Additionally, it can help to further blur the lines between a pilot’s along with a diver’s watch. The only dead giveaway on the low price point is the finish of the case. The success of the watch’s design can be found in the relationship between the dial, bezel, and pushers.This is one watch that may benefit greatly from a strap shift, although the provided patterned black rubber band is a pretty efficient method to keep costs down without even looking like other watches in the low four figures. I will be seeing what happens to the appearance of this watch once it gets a NATO design strap run through its spring bars. In reality, the BR126 is just one military green canvas strap away from providing the IWC Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Miramar a series for its money.Bell & Ross has continued to flaunt all the right moves as a trendy, innovative company with a very powerful individuality. There are a number of things more powerful than any 1 advertising effort, and that’s the uncommon combination of top caliber and patience. It was only a matter of time before they left a watch which would appeal to me as far as this one does. Which may not win you a Grand Prix award, but it will win a spot on my own wrist, and for the price, maybe on yours also.

To be frank, we’ve been following Bell & Ross from the start. It started with their watches with the ‘Bell & Ross by Sinn’ wording on the dial, heavily influenced by the models of Sinn. Nowadays, Bell & Ross clearly have their own identity with the three collections they have: Vintage, Marine and Aviation.

During our visit to them at BaselWorld, we sat down with a team of Bell & Ross and discussed their timepieces. We zoomed in on their Vintage collection, and mainly at the new WW2 Bomber Regulateur. Inspired by the time keeping instruments used by bombers in the late 1930s and 1940s, this Bell & Ross WW2 Bomber Regulateur is the third timepiece of the Vintage collection referring to ‘war’-pieces. In 2011, Bell & Ross introduced the PW1 pocket watch and the WW1 wrist watch both heavily relying on similar watches that have been used by military aviation of World War 1. This year, the WW2 Bomber Regulateur is the vintage-collection timepiece Bell & Ross is introducing to us.

As you can see, the WW2 Bomber was inspired by the model above. A timing device where the minute hand seems to be the most important asset for bomber navigators. The WW2 Bomber regulator has the same case shape and the dial lay-out has similarities as well.

The looks of the WW2 Bomber Regulateur are very nicely done. The patina on the dial looks awesome and the yellow/brown-ish hour markers and numerals are a superb combination with the dial. Bell & Ross also paid attention to the strap on this piece, they’ve used worn leather (or at least created a strap that looks worn) for the distressed calf skin strap. The buckle resembles the soldered lug-style  of the case.

The 49mm stainless steel case with PVD finish has a ‘lefty’, which means the crown is positioned at 9 o’clock. Perhaps not easy to grasp when the watch is on your wrist, but at least it doesn’t stick into your hand while wearing this large aviator watch.

Bell & Ross used a Dubois Depraz movement for the regulateur functionality/lay-out. We’ve seen movements by Dubois Depraz in many other watches as well, proven a solid track record.

More information on the official Bell & Ross website or their official Facebook page.