One of last year’s many highlights for us from Bell & Ross was the Horolum BR03-92. It seemed to combine the best of the brand’s unique design history. The Horolum amped up the luminosity to recall the blinking lights of a landing strip as well as its shape which was highly reminiscent of clocks found in airports and onboard airplane cockpits. This year, Bell & Ross is reviving the Horolum for a new limited edition run of 500 pieces alongside the introduction of the Horoblack.
Both the BR03-94 Horolum and BR03-92 Horoblack have micro-blasted steel cases and dials. Through this process — which involves tiny glass beads being pressure blasted across the metal surface — the steel becomes uniform, matte, and completely unreflective. Just like last year’s watches, supreme legibility is the main goal here, allowing the utilitarian case and sandwich dial the optimum ability to contrast against the numerals and indices.
The main difference between the BR03-92 and the BR03-94 is the addition of a chronograph complication. At 3 o’clock there is a small seconds subdial and at 9 o’clock a 30-minute counter. You can find a small date window hiding out between 3 and 4 o’clock. It looks a little busy but thankfully Bell & Ross matched the backdrop of the date aperture with the same gray as the rest of the dial. There is a tachymetric scale located on the flange and the watch comes with a gray-green calfskin strap. The Br03-94 uses the BR-CAL.301 movement that is based on an ETA 2894-2 with a 42-hour power reserve. It’s priced at $5,800 and is available now.
You might consider the Horoblack a spiritual successor to last year’s Horolum if you take out the neon green lume and replace it with an all-black look. This is a simple time-and-date only piece with the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock numerals oversize and highly readable. This is Bell & Ross at its best: sandwich dial, circle-in-square case, and a masculine approach that is grounded and not overly flashy. It uses a BR-CAL.302 movement with a 38-hour power reserve (this is the same movement used in the BR03-92 Horolum). It’s limited to 999 total pieces, priced at $3,400, and is available now.
