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Bell & Ross expands its BR 01 Cyber Skull collection with the new BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue, a 45mm clear sapphire watch with an automaton skull whose jaw moves when the watch’s crown is turned while winding the movement.

The new Bell & Ross BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue.

The high-tech composite sapphire case allows a completely clear view of the manual-wind caliber and its components, whether viewed from the front or back of the watch. The highlight ice blue skull, made of galvanized brass and blue PVD (on the dial side), serves as a backdrop and mainplate for the skeletonized caliber BR-CAL.209, with its 48-hour power reserve and 28,800 vph frequency.

Bruno Belamich, creative director and co-founder of Bell & Ross, explains that the newest skull hue “combines perfectly with the transparency of the sapphire of the case, like a faceted iceberg.”

The watchmaker notes that the case’s sapphire material is almost as hard and scratch-resistant as diamond. To produce the case, technicians use a hydrogen flame to heat an alumina powder to a temperature exceeding 2,000°C., a delicate and painstaking process

Bell & Ross equips the watch with a transparent soft silicone strap held to the wrist with a polished and satin-finished steel pin buckle. The new BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue is a limited edition of 25 pieces, each priced at $115,000. 

Chronoswiss adds two new models to its Grand Regulator series, a collection of primarily 44mm steel watches featuring the watchmaker’s trademark regulator dial arrangement with a large central minute hand and smaller off-center hour hand.

The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Cowboy.

One model, the Grand Regulator Cowboy, offers a black case with a skeletonized black dial nicely accented with gold markers and typeface. The Cowboy comes affixed to a brown hornback alligator strap.

The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Night Prowler.

 

The second debut, the Grand Regulator Night Prowler, features a deep blue skeletonized dial, blue accents and markers and a black case. This model is attached to a black alligator strap.

Both watches are powered by a handsome skeletonized manual-wind movement, C.677S, which Chronoswiss builds from an ETA Unitas base caliber.

The independent Lucerne-based brand has teamed regulator timekeeping with a wide variety of other functions and displays since 1987, when Chronoswiss debuted the first serially produced wristwatch with a regulator-type dial.

In recent years, the Chronoswiss regulator collection has focused on bold, 44mm partially or fully skeletonized manual-wind watches, as well as automatic models in smaller (37mm and 41mm) diameters, many displaying more classical, dressy dials with time-only indications.

Chronoswiss will make each watch as a limited edition of thirty pieces.

Price: $13,300.

 

Specifications:  Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton 

(Two Limited Editions of 30)

CH-6725S-BKBL “Night Prowler” 

CH-6725S-BKGO “Cowboy”

Displays: Off-center hours at 12:00, central minutes, small seconds at 6:00. 

Case: Solid 21-part 44mm by 12.48mm stainless steel with a DLC-coating, satin finish and polished bezel with side knurling and curved, non-reflecting sapphire crystal, screw-down case back with satin finish and flat sapphire crystal, onion crown, water resistance up to 3 bar, strap bars screwed in with patented Autobloc system.

Movement: Chronoswiss caliber C. 677S, manual winding from a Unitas base, modified on Regulator dial; skeletonized, 18,000 vph, 46-hour power reserve. 

Dial: Multi-level on skeletonized base with funnel construction. Middle level with individual number of limitation. Top level screwed on foundation blocks, hands are gold-plated or lacquered.

Strap: Hornback crocodile leather / Alligator leather ; hand-sewn with folding clasp.

Price: $13,300 (each model)  

H. Moser & Cie. creates its thinnest and smallest Streamliner yet with the new Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel, a sleek 39mm cushion-cased steel watch that debuts automatic caliber HMC 500, the independent watchmaker’s first movement with a micro-rotor.

The new H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel.

Boasting a very slightly elongated cushion shape and a seriously stunning Grand Feu ‘Aqua Blue’ enamel dial, the new watch retains Streamliner collection’s organic curves and integrated bracelet design.

And with the new, thin movement the watch is among H. Moser’s thinnest at 10.9mm high.

H. Moser mounts its new platinum micro-rotor on a ball bearing and equips it with a bi-directional pawl winding system that offers a solid seventy-four-hour power reserve.

Despite a smaller escapement, the movement’s performance remains as strong as H. Moser’s existing, larger calibers. (See full specifications below).

Made from solid platinum, the micro-rotor is mounted on a ball bearing, equipped with a bi-directional pawl winding system.

Developed in tandem with H. Moser’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG, the movement will serve as a base for the watchmaker’s small-case designs going forward, and will “enable us to introduce new complications, by combining it with modules developed in-house or in collaboration with our partner Agenhor,” explains Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie.

H. Moser artisans wash three different color pigments, which are then finely crushed and applied to the dial.

Moser creates the logo-free translucent enamel by painstakingly firing the substance twelve times to create the fumé effect. In a nice contrast to this primary dial, an offset small seconds display at 6 o’clock is lacquered with a circular pattern.

Price: $32,900.

 

Specifications: H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel

(Reference 6500-1200, steel model, Aqua Blue fumé dial, integrated steel bracelet.) 

Case:

Steel topped by a slightly domed sapphire crystal

Diameter: 39.0 mm

Height without sapphire crystal: 9.3 mm; Height with sapphire crystal: 10.9 mm

See-through case-back 

Screw-in crown adorned with an “M”

Water-resistant to 120 meters

Dial:

Aqua Blue fumé “Grand Feu” enamel with hammered texture 

Applique indices 

Hour and minute hands with Globolight inserts 

Lacquered small seconds sub-dial with a circular pattern

Movement:

Automatic calibre HMC 500, partially skeletonized

Diameter: 30.0 mm or 13 1/4 lignes

Height: 4.5 mm 

Frequency:  21,600 Vb/h

Automatic bi-directional pawl winding system 

Solid platinum micro-rotor engraved with the H. Moser hallmark 

Power reserve: minimum of 74 hours

Original Straumann hairspring 

Finish with Moser stripes 

Strap/bracelet:

Integrated steel bracelet  

Folding clasp with three steel blades, engraved with the Moser logo 

Price: $32,900.

Accutron adds four new colors to its electrostatic-movement-powered DNA timepiece collection to create the new Accutron DNA Casino series.

One of four new Accutron DNA Casino watches.

This sportier version of the original Accutron Spaceview series arrives in bright-hues, including green, blue, orange and red, all meant to echo the Las Vegas neon skyline.

Like the initial Accutron DNA models, these debuts feature 45.1mm steel cases in a grey finish with silver-grey accent on the outer hour/minute ring and silver-tone hands.

For each, a colorful open-work dial and crown match its brightly colored integrated rubber strap, which is set with a solid double-press deployant closure.

 

As a reminder, Accutron’s DNA collection and its Spaceview models feature watches powered by Accutron’s proprietary movement that utilizes electrostatic energy as created by rotating twin ‘turbines.’

That energy, stored in an accumulator, powers two motors. One is an electrostatic motor to power the seconds hand and the other is a step motor powering the hour and minute hands. Accutron clocks the movement’s monthly accuracy to plus or minus five seconds.

“The vibrancy and energy of the casino atmosphere came to life in the new Accutron DNA Casino collection,” says Jeffrey Cohen, President of Citizen Watch America. “These new timepieces are a playful way to showcase the world’s first electrostatic powered watch movement.”

Accutron will make each watch as a limited edition of 100 pieces, each priced at $3,500.

Ulysse Nardin dresses its Freak One in khaki and black to unveil the Freak One Ops, a military styled version of its groundbreaking flying carrousel movement watch.

The new Ulysse Nardin Freak One Ops.

This newest Freak retains the same specifications and black DLC case of the Freak One that the watchmaker debuted earlier in 2023. That watch (recently named winner of the Iconic Watch Prize at the 2023 GPHG) combined several favorite Freak designs from the past. These include the notched bezel of the original 2001 Freak, the open gear train seen on the 2013 Freak Cruiser, plus the high-legibility of the 2018 Freak Vision.

Here, Ulysse Nardin offers a more casual version of the earlier design. Instead of the earlier watch’s luxurious gold-finished bezel and movement we see a carbon bezel, a khaki green palette and a sunray patterned barrel cover, creating a stealthier version of the watch.

As noted, the 44mm Freak One Ops maintains all the Freak One’s ‘no hands, no dial and no crown’ technical features, anchored by the highly-visible UN-240 self-winding movement with a 90-hour power reserve.

The movement’s flying carousel, silicon balance wheel and escapement are suspended by a bridge that acts as the minute hand while the second bridge serves as the hour hand.

The Freak One Ops is regulated by a silicon hairspring (which Ulysse Nardin introduced in 2008) with an escapement treated with the synthetic diamond and silicon plasma treatment called DIAMonSIL, which Ulysse Nardin added to the Freak in 2007.

Ulysse Nardin offers the Freak One Ops with a choice of two integrated straps: one in black and khaki “ballistic” rubber, and an alternate two-tone recycled-rubber strap, also in black and khaki. Both have black DLC titanium and black ceramic folding clasps.

Price: $66,500.