To recap: Bell&Ross make big fat aviator watches. They are expensive. Now they have a smaller line of solid gold pieces with considerably less geek cred. We encourage you, then, to feast your eyes on a watch more expensive than your car yet with no mechanical improvements over a $100 Seiko. Feast your eyes on the Instrument BRS Gold.

I love Bell&Ross. I really do. They took the Big Watch craze and made something cool, techie, and elegant. But B&R: please stop milking this cow. She’s really hurting right now and each new iteration (”Now in black! Now in blue!”) reminds us that there aren’t any new ideas coming out of B&R HQ right now.

Because he wants to reach for the stars and explore the ocean depths, because he lives out his passions to the full, man has always measured himself against time… to turn a few seconds into a moment of eternity.

Master watchmakers, engineers, designers and professional users combine their skills and experience with a unique objective in mind – to create a utilitarian watch - with the motto being that the essential is never compromised by the superfluous.

s is for smaller
In 2008, Bell & Ross has expanded its iconic model, the INSTRUMENT, with the birth of its new 39 mm diameter BRS GOLD collection. This new addition is an urban interpretation of the BR 01 Professional Instrument (46 mm).
A size that is suitable for everyday use, in line with the four fundamental Bell & Ross principles: readability, functionality, accuracy and water-resistance.

s is for sleeker
The BRS Gold is an elegant BR designed in adherence with the traditional Swiss watchmaking codes. The ergonomic case with its remarkably flat profile (6.8 mm) houses a mechanical movement with manual winding.

s is for smart
Noble materials, pink gold or satin-finish grey gold, high-precision adjusted movement, pure dial - the BRS Gold is synonymous with high-technology and elegance.
With its pink gold trim, the professional Instrument is elegant with a haute horlogerie feel to it.
refined, sleek, luxurious and supremely comfortable to wear, the Brs Gold will become a part of everyday life for demanding men and women from both enthusiasts to seasoned collectors.

technical characteristics
movement: Mechanical with manual winding, ETA 7001
Functions: Central hour and minute, independent small second at 6 o’clock.
Case: Diameter 39 mm. Pink gold or grey gold 18 K
Dials: Black galvanic, pearl or ivory. Blued hands.
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 50 m strap: Alligator (Brown-Black-Grey)
Price:
- Pink gold: $ 10,900
- Grey gold: $ 11,900

Shore is purdy! This watch has a quartz movement with PVD-coated case and a moonphase read-out at 6 o’clock. The watch costs $795. Bathys is a watch company run by a surfer who loves in Hawaii. How’s that for provenance?

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 30, 2008
Bathys Introduces Innovative New Womens Watch

(Kappa, Hawaii) Bathys Hawaii has announced the release of the Lunar Wahine, a revolutionary watch in that it is actually easy to determine what time it is when looking at the dial. Said company spokesperson and Bathys CEO, John Patterson PhD “We found in extensive market research that although women felt that diamonds were ‘nice’ – most women said they mainly wore a watch in order to be able to tell the time”. He continues, “Additionally, our research found that there is a fairly large segment of the women out there who really do not care for having a gemstone-set butterfly on the dial of their watch, but would rather have a date feature instead.”
We polled a few women on the streets to get their reaction to the new design from Bathys: “Well I like it because it doesn’t look like a diamond-encrusted spaceship landed on my wrist”, said Lisa Wilson when we showed her the new Wahine. When asked for her opinion, Kathy Anderson of Plano Texas said, “Hey look at that – it’s 2:14”. And when we spoke with Martha Sidlo who purchased one of the watches several days ago she said, “I was really surprised at first. I kept looking down and actually seeing the actual time – all in real time. It was like I was living in ‘the now’ for the first time ever. This other watch my husband gave me…” she said motioning to a $12,000 designer timepiece “..I kept looking and looking trying to see when it was, and all I could tell was there were 6 more years left until the next solar eclipse.”

OK, we couldn’t help it. We just really wanted to write that press release….

Below you’ll find the information more commonly associated with the release of a new timepiece. Ahem.

Bathys announces the release of the new Lunar Wahine (“wah-hee-nay”), their first foray into the world of Womens Timepieces. The watch bucks current trends by featuring a simple legible and luminous dial with large Arabic numerals. Featuring a 36mm stainless steel case (or steel PVD coated with titanium nitride) that is water resistant to 100M (330 feet) and a domed sapphire to fend of all scratches – this is one tough timepiece. Bathys has chosen a jeweled, Swiss-Made quartz movement that not only tells time, but gives both the date and the current moon phase - a real help for surfer chicks waiting for the big tides or astronomers waiting for dark nights. The moon phase display also gives the watch a retro feel and is accurate to one day per 8 years once set. The watch comes with a waterproof black leather strap and a water resistant polished black stingray strap that use quick-change spring bars to allow an easy swap. Currently Bathys offers the Wahine in three variations – Steel case/black dial; Steel case/chocolate brown brushed dial; and Rose Ti PVD/black dial (shown) Each watch comes with a 2 year warranty and is $795 MSRP.
Please see www.bathyshawaii.com for more information.

Oakley has released some new watches, but now the prices are a little more reasonable. The two that jumped out at me are the JUDGE® II Dual Time, and the 10th Mountain Division HOLESHOT™ Watch. The Judge Dual Time is a little steep at a list price of $825 ($725 for the leather strap), but the Holeshot is a little more reasonable at $550.

The JUDGE® II Dual Time is pretty sexy quartz watch with either a heavy steel bracelet or a leather strap. They didn’t list a size, but based on other Oakleys, I’d guess in the 41 - 43mm range. The lines are sleek and have the distinctive Oakley styling. A subdial displays the second time zone, with an independent stem. They list the battery life as 36 months, which seems a little short to me, but other than that I’m liking this one.

The 10th Mountain Division HOLESHOT™ Watch is a big (47.5mm) quartz chronograph, in olive green and black. Not really an exceptional movement or appearence, except that they go out of their way to honor the Soldiers on skies of the 10th Mountain Division with combat service in Italy, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan (they left their skis home for some of these). I like the red tips on the hands, that makes a nice hightlight to the face. Working the 10th Mountain patch into the design would have been a nice touch, but probably wouldn’t have been consistent with the usual Oakley aesthetics.

There are a couple of other that didn’t blow wind up my kilt, but it is good to see Oakley making their prices a little more realistic. This bodes well for the future.

I want this. Comments?

I’m shopping for watches and found this cool video of the JLC Master Geographic.

I’m totally down with this PanoInverse XL from Glashutte. For some reason I’m drawn to GO recently - I saw the factory first hand so I think that’s what’s causing me to cast my gimlet eye over to Germany rather than Switzerland.

The Glashütte Original PanoInverse XL was introduced at Basel 2008. It uses a manufacture Caliber 66 hand wound movement. The hand-engraved duplex swan-neck bridge is visually impressive. Although what is even more impressive, is the large balance wheel that oscillates below the bridge 28,800 times per hour.

At the other, extreme, extreme, you have the Trident with black nitride finish. This one has no shame about being for somone who has no desire to wear a suit. 40mm diameter, 13mm thick, 200m water resistant, a screw-down crown, and with a combination of tritium and SuperLuminova illumination, this is for someone who resents working inside. The model with the black nitride finish and matching bracelet is neck and neck with the titanium version for my next watch.

Purists will be distainful; yes, it is a quartz movement. But hey, when did you see a mechanical with a global tide chart mechanism, like the Graviton model? Reactor has some tasteful, classy watches, and a bunch of watches for doing things that a rough on expensive watches, and they all have a distinctive style. I guess they met their objectives.

And thanks to Scott at Reactor Watches and David at the Overland Park Dillard’s watch counter for your time and assistance .

Van

While I understand the impulse to buy expensive watches, I’m rarely moved by to open my wallet when simple beauties like these come along. These two new limited editions form Jaquet Droz are sport watches for the caviar and horsie set. The Grande Seconde SW is a standard three hand watch with a few odd touches - “The numerals are printed on the inclined ring itself, a technical exploit to which only the Jaquet Droz craftsmen hold the secret” and presumably those selfsame craftsmen will take that secret to their graves - while the Reserve De Marche Ceramique is limited to 88 pieces and is made of ceramic. It has a 68-hour power reserve and reserve indicator on the dial.

Read more…

Prior to disassembly, I’ve worn the watch for a few weeks. It was keeping pretty decent time and overall is rather comfy on the wrist. It doesn’t look too bad either. Some of the case finishing could certainly be better, but being a freebie, I have no right to complain.

All around nice guy Sven from Buscum Ducis is reporting that he just got his first shipment in of his first watch line and one is winging its way over to the US as we speak. As you’ll recall, Sven van der Zande is a 21-year-old horologist with a dream: he wanted to make his own watch. The resulting beefster, as we see here in this mock-up, looks like a monster. Look for it in the next few weeks and please pop over to his site if you’d like to pre-order a timepiece.