Bell & Ross Issues 3 New Vintage-Style Military Watches

The BR V2 line covers land, sea, and air.

Bell & Ross has channeled its elegant yet practical military vibe into a new line of three vintage-style automatics. The BR V2 series is a visual style changeup for B & R as well, foregoing the watchmaker’s typically squared-off instrument panel style for round faces, resulting in an overall look that suggests direct competition with other affordable but still luxury watch brands like Omega or Grand Seiko. 

Customers have some nice options to work with as well, including either polished stainless steel bracelets or stretchy parachute-fabric Nato straps—but like all good things, there are only so many of these timepieces to go around. 

With the BR V2-94 Aéronavale Bronze, Bell & Ross has created a stylish blue and gold homage to French naval dress uniforms. The case is made of actual bronze, burnished to a yellow gold-like tone. The chronograph has a fixed aluminum bezel, screw-down pushers and a pair of subdials for counting seconds or timing in 30-minute increments. This is a limited-edition run of 999 pieces and retails for $5,200.

Bell & Ross calls the BR V2-92 “Military Green” in honor of ground troops everywhere. It’s a historically resonant nod to the fact that wristwatches basically became a thing on the battlefield, one of the soldier’s most indispensable non-tactical tools. This model is built for legibility, with luminous bright green numbers and hands. The bezel twists in any direction to permit easy measurement of distinct time intervals and it runs on the automatic BR-CAL.302. For a steel bracelet, you’ll pay $3,300. The Nato strap version is $2,990.

With the BR V2-93 GMT Bell & Ross is issuing a variation on a theme—this a blued-out spin on the 2018 GMT. Pilots already love the GMT, with its 24-hour scale and bi-color bezel, and they’ll love this new version for its lightweight construction from anodized aluminum and the separate red hand for marking a different and numbers coated in bright Super-LumiNova for excellent readability in any light. It runs on an automatic BR-CAL.303 movement and costs $3,200 for the Nato strap version. The bracelet model goes for $3,500.

Learn more and buy your own at bellross.com.