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Bell & Ross Teams with Alain Silberstein for Black Ceramic Trio 

Bell & Ross’s Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich have teamed with watch design legend Alain Silberstein to create a trio of watches that combine Silberstein’s colorful shapes with a black ceramic version of Belamich’s aviation-inspired square Bell & Ross BR 03 design.

United as the fourth offering from Singapore-based Grail Watch, the two watchmakers have devised the Bell & Ross × Alain Silberstein Black Ceramic Trilogy, which consists of a BR 03 time-only model with date, a BR 03 diving watch and a BR 03 chronograph.

All three watches use the now more common, smaller version of the BR 03 case. While the original BR 01 measured 46mm × 46mm, most recent BR 03 collections measure 42mm × 42mm, the size of each model in the new Grail Watch collection.

Notably, none of the watches features a brand logo.

“We decided to simply use the ampersand that already features prominently in our brand name, because what better symbol for a collaboration between equals could you imagine?” says Belamich.

“With the chronograph, Carlos explained that the seconds hand was by far the largest one ever fitted to one of their watches, and we had to ensure the reset function worked perfectly each and every time so it would align exactly at zero,” Silberstein adds.

“With the diving watch, we had to make sure these huge oversized hands were as light as possible, so they wouldn’t affect the overall precision of the movement. And then to make a two-color ceramic bezel was a major challenge.”

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, showing large hands.

Time & Date

The first watch in the trio, the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22, is a time-only model on a matte black ceramic case and jet-black dial.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22.

Silberstein’s massive hand design creates a playful dial while as a large blue arrow indicates minutes and an S-shaped yellow form indicates the seconds.

The dial is interrupted only by the subtle date indicator. The watch features an automatic movement caliber BR.CAL-302 with date function. Priced at $4,400, it will be made in 200 examples. 

The Dive Watch

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, the second model in the trio, is a re-imagined dive model.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22.

Here Silberstein applies his “Maxi’ hands, which include a blue circular hours hand and a large red arrow. While both hands are liberally coated with luminescent material, the minute hand is particularly visible due to its critical elapsed dive time function.

To that end, the designer created a specialized two-tone ceramic bezel with the final twenty minutes of the insert colored red and a full set of 20-minute markers with luminous indexes.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22 diver model is depth rated to 300 meters, features a screw-down crown and is powered by caliber BR.CAL-302, the same automatic movement with date function used in the time only model. It will be made in a series of 100 examples. Price: $5,600.

The Chronograph

The third model in the series is the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22, a chronograph with five of Silberstein’s famous Bauhaus-inspired hands.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22.

The hours are indicated by red circle with a blue arrow showing the minutes. Here, a yellow S-shaped hand serves as the chronograph seconds indicator while a blue triangle serves as the indicator for the chronograph 30-minute counter and a yellow arrow displays continuous seconds.

Unlike the other two debuts, this model offers a crown that features Silberstein’s signature red triangle.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22 is powered by the caliber BR.CAL-301 automatic chronograph movement with date. Made in 100 examples, the watch is priced at $6,700.

Grail Watch is offering watches numbered 1 to 50 as a box set of all three timepieces, which will arrive in a Silberstein-designed collector’s box. Price for the set: $16,700. 

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Zodiac Revives Olympos

While Zodiac is best-known for its dive watches, the company’s long history also includes creating watches for all types military or civilian adventure. One of those designs, the Olympos, is a field watch Zodiac originally created in 1961. 

From the start, the Olympos stood apart from traditional Swiss designs thanks to its distinctive, six-sided, manta-ray-shaped case and a crown located at the 2 o’clock position.

The new Zodiac Olympos Field closely echoes a military version Zodiac created for the British Royal Navy in the late 1960s.

The watch, nicknamed the ‘manta’, was a best-seller for many years for Zodiac, both as a dress model and even with sportier accents. Many might recall that Zodiac reprised the Olympos in 2018 with several dressy alternatives.

Zodiac in late 2022 updated the collection with a decidedly more rugged version, the Olympos Field, a design that most closely echoes a military version Zodiac created for the British Royal Navy in the late 1960s.

The newest model features a newly contoured steel case and stronger water resistance, which now is rated to 200 meters. The new watch also echoes the military look of traditional field watches, with easy-to-read, luminous numerals and black or dark green textured dial options.

The green-dialed model arrives on a sharp-looking light brown leather strap lined with sporty white stitching. The darker model, with its black dial, comes with a dark brown strap that’s also lined with white stitching.

And like the recently released Super Sea Wolf Ceramic, the new Zodiac Olympos Field is powered by the automatic STP 1-11 movement that it protects with a solid caseback emblazoned with Zodiac logo.

ZOD5062735

Zodiac now offers its new Olympos Field watch is available on zodiacwatches.com. Price: $895.

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Ulysse Nardin Celebrates Year of the Rabbit 

Ulysse Nardin celebrates the Year of the Rabbit in the traditional Chinese Zodiac with the Classico Rabbit, a 40mm rose-gold-cased limited edition watch with a stunning champlevé and cloisonné dial depicting the symbol of good fortune for 2023.

The new Ulysse Nardin Classico Rabbit, a 40mm rose-gold-cased limited edition watch.

Starting with a sketch, artisans at Ulysse Nardin’s dial workshop Donzé Cadrans carve directly into the rabbit motif dial, creating individual “cells” that they then fill with enamel. The artisans then fire the enamel, smooth and polish it. They then carefully enrich the scene by chiseling metal elements onto the surface.

Ulysse Nardin also applies textured cloisonné elements to the dial for added three-dimensional effect.

For the Classico Rabbit, champleve gold-wire folding represents up to fifteen working hours per dial.

To do this artisans create compartments using a very thin gold wire to deposit enamel with hyper precision. For the Classico Rabbit, this gold-wire folding represents up to fifteen working hours per dial, according to Ulysse Nardin.

At the Donzé Cadrans workshop, this high-level of craftsmanship is applied to a wide range of Ulysse Nardin watches. Collections benefits from the application of an array of enameling techniques, including Grand Feu, Cloisonné, Champlevé and Flinqué.

The Le Locle-based watchmaker will produce the Classico Rabbit in a limited-edition series of 88 timepieces, each powered by the UN-815 automatic movement. The watch arrives with a black alligator strap with a rose-gold buckle and a clear sapphire caseback.

Price: $45,900. 

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Piaget Adds Moonphase to Altiplano 

Piaget enhances its ultra-thin Altiplano collection with a set of four artisanal Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches, each displaying a translucent blue enamel sky created by master enameler Anita Porchet.

The four new Piaget Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches, each representing a different season.

The four Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches display Chinese constellations, each represented by small white dots and precious stones. At night, hidden SuperLuminova-coated artwork lights up to reveal the moon and the season’s ‘Guardian’ constellation.

Each of the four models is associated with a different Guardian of the season: The Azure Dragon stands for the East and is associated with Spring and wood; the red bird, representing the South, is close to Summer and fire; the white tiger, looking West, is a friend of Autumn and finally a black turtle (for the North) represents Winter.

One the lower half of each watch Piaget displays moon rays made of graduated diamonds, sapphires and garnets. The large moon phase display features a moon window framed with gold ring set and graduated diamonds. Each 36mm watch is cased in white gold or rose gold with a baguette diamond bezel.

Following two years of work, the new models are among the first in the Altiplano collection to feature a moon phase display. Two additional models, each with mother-of-pearl dials, also debut the moon phase display within Altiplano.

Piaget powers the new series with its 580P Altiplano Manufacture automatic mechanical movement. On the back you’ll find a deep blue-lacquered moon-shaped oscillating weight.

Each season of the Piaget Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase is a limited edition of eight individually numbered timepieces. 

Prices: $147,000.

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Porsche Design Races on Ice 

Porsche Design launches a special edition of its Chronograph 1 to commemorate the brand’s fourth year as timing partner of the GP Ice Race in Austria.

The 250-piece limited-edition echoes the original Chronograph 1 from 1972, which is often considered the first all-black chronograph.

The new Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – GP Ice Race 2023 Edition.

The new Chronograph 1 – GP Ice Race 2023 Edition, like the original watch, delivers the appearance of a Porsche 911 dashboard to the wrist, complete with luminescent hour markers and a matte-black dial. 

But on the new watch Porsche Design updates certain details, such as using a pointed minute hand and red chronograph hands. The minute hand on the original model was rectangular while the chronograph hands on that 1972 edition were white. 

Also reflecting modern technology, Porsche Design builds the new watch with antireflective, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and an uncoated, 40.8mm lightweight silver titanium case.

Inside the watchmaker fits its excellent COSC-certified WERK 01.240 caliber with flyback function that powers a quick-switch date display and a bilingual day display. Porsche Design has engraved the edition number and the unusual GP logo on the caseback. The logo, which depicts Yeti sitting on a tractor, is unique to this limited edition.

Porsche Design also provides two bracelet options: a textile variant and a classic black version made of vehicle leather and with a matte-black titanium folding clasp.

The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – GP Ice Race 2023 Edition can be ordered at the Porsche Design website and in Porsche Design Stores. Price: $9,650. 

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