What is a Bell & Ross watch doing in the sand? The brand has spent the better part of the last two decades convincing us that the staple Bell & Ross BR-03 was born in the skies and has every right to stay on the wrist of aviation professionals. This watch on the cover of our magazine, however, is not a BR-03. This watch represents the culmination of watchmaking savoir faire that Bell & Ross has garnered over more than 30 years of existence and is imbued with the brand’s signature X treatment, which vaults it over the traditional and into the realm of the avant-garde. This is the BR-X3.

So, what is a Bell & Ross doing in the sand? Quite simply, the BR-X3, with its more technical interpretation of watchmaking, inevitably expands its clientele. The evolution of a watch that started in the cockpit of a jet plane deserves a new playing field. And this is exactly what the watch is doing in the sand. With the announcement that Bell & Ross is now the Official Timing Partner of the Defender Rally team, which competes within the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) and the infamous Dakar Rally, Bell & Ross is getting its hands dirty playing in the mud and sand. But does all of this make sense for a brand like Bell & Ross, trading wings for wheels and flying so low to the ground? The exploration of the latest BR-X3 Black Titanium proves exactly why this partnership makes perfect sense and represents an exciting new frontier for this relatively young watch brand.

HISTORY TAKES FLIGHT

Before the BR-X3 came the BR-03. And like with every great watch, it started with an idea. The idea came from co-founders Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich to take the unique combination of a circle within a square, found on most instrument gauges in the cockpit of an aircraft, and turn it into a timepiece. Thus, the BR-01 was born. Arguably, although the brand had existed since 1994, the debut of the BR-01 in 2005 could be considered the birth of the “real” Bell & Ross, because it was from this singular idea inspired by aircraft cockpit instruments that went on to serve as the brand’s vehemently focused identity persisting until today.

When it was created, the BR-01 was unapologetic in its construction. From its inspiration as a tool, the watches were practically gargantuan at 46 mm in width. Remember, square watches tend to wear larger than their round counterparts. It was only in 2006 that Bell & Ross decided that it would shrink down the case shape to 42 mm with the BR-03. In 2023, the collection was further refined to 41mm and has since remained the profile that most modern fans of Bell & Ross are familiar with. Sadly, the BR-01 has since been discontinued, which relegated the task of enduring as the brand’s icon to the BR-03 collection. And endured it has.

The most basic model of the BR-03 has remained virtually unchanged in terms of aesthetics, but if you look at the brand’s collection today, there are myriad options to choose from, both in terms of functionality and design. And this, I think, is the real genius behind Bell & Ross: taking a single niche concept and evolving it into multiple collections within the brand. After all, if the watch stayed stagnant at its initial design with nothing else on display, I doubt they would be able to sell as many watches as they do today. As it stands in contemporary times, the BR-03 serves as the point of origin for Bell & Ross’ watches, and from that, they have distilled its essence into its most basic form—a circle within a square—and allowed it to take on whatever form abides by this ethos. There are BR-03 watches in all sorts of colours and case finishings, inspired by helicopters, inspired by space; there are skeleton versions of the BR-03, dive watches, and GMTs—the possibilities are near endless. Which brings us to X.

3 TO THE POWER OF X

I don’t consider the BR-X3 to be an evolution of the BR-03 because evolution implies a gradual change to the original form. The BR-03 Skeleton is an evolution of the BR-03, and in much the same way, the BR-05 also represents an evolution of the BR- 03, spinning off as a dressier version of the more utilitarian BR- 03 while still keeping the iconic circle-within-a-square DNA. The BR-X3, however, feels more like a supercharging of the BR-03. It takes the core ideology and removes all safety guardrails to create a hyper-technical reimagining of this watch.

The X treatment for the BR-X3 takes the collection to the next technical level in terms of watchmaking savoir faire. Although Bell & Ross is no stranger to complication—they have made plenty of tourbillons like the BR-X3 Tourbillon Micro-Rotor, and there was even once a series of skull automatons—these are mostly limited editions made in small batch runs. To produce a complicated watch as a production model, however, requires a different set of manufacturing capabilities before it can become commercially viable.

The case of the BR-X3 Black Titanium was created with a multi-component, multi-layered, and multi-material structure. “Two grey titanium plates—top and bottom—hold all components together. The black colour of the strap continues through the case, forming a black band that runs between the two grey titanium layers,” explains Bruno Belamich, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Bell & Ross. “This multi-layer design lets us mix materials, colours, and finishes.” The downside of such a complicated case structure is that the manufacturing process also becomes a lot more intense. There are more parts to machine; each component, especially the smaller ones, requires machining to higher tolerances. And on top of that, with more components, there are more openings that need to be properly sealed to ensure the waterproofness of the watch. But the results are well worth it when you have a case that feels this sophisticated.

In many ways, the BR-X3 feels like it was designed for the watch enthusiast. The more complex case is one thing, but even the dial is built with a visual symmetry that will satisfy the watch nerds who often complain about the position of date windows. And this was made possible only because the movement, the Calibre BR-CAL.323, was specially developed for Bell & Ross. Just as an explanation, unless a brand has in-house manufacturing capabilities, most movements are sourced from movement makers like Sellita or, before they stopped supplying to non-Swatch Group companies, ETA. And these are usually complete movements or ébauches that allow the buyer to modify or finish and assemble them themselves. This means the watches that use these movements will somehow have to conform to the specifications, limiting their freedom in design. For the Calibre BRCAL. 323, on the other hand, it was made specifically for Bell & Ross by the movement maker Kenissi. This allowed Bell & Ross to imagine the watch first and then have the movement made to the specification of its design.

To the general consumer, having a manufacture movement probably doesn’t affect the buying decision, but for watch enthusiasts this definitely tips the scale in one way or another—especially once knowing that Kenissi also manufactures movements for quite a number of prestigious brands. One of the reasons Bell & Ross has access to Kenissi’s movements comes in part from the fact that Chanel, which owns a stake in Bell & Ross, also has a 20 per cent minority stake in Kenissi since 2018. And the fact that these movements are chronometers certified by the COSC adds value for those concerned with the precision of these mechanical timepieces, namely its -4/+6 seconds deviation rate per day.

PLAYING IN THE SAND

Upon understanding how the BR-X3 is different in almost every way from the BR-03 except for its core philosophy, it suddenly starts to make sense why Bell & Ross decided that it needed a new playground to call its own. This is where the partnership with the Defender Rally team comes in. On paper, Bell & Ross is the Official Timing Partner of Defender Rally, but realistically the bigger value of this partnership comes from being able to put the BR-X3 in an environment that will accentuate all the elements that Bell & Ross have worked into the timepiece.

Defender Rally is a new team competing in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). And just to set the scene if you are unfamiliar with Rally-Raid: it is a long-distance off-road endurance motorsport that often takes place in the desert. Where the traditional rally takes place over dozens of kilometres, Rally- Raid is raced in stages several hundreds of kilometres long. The infamous Dakar Rally opens the W2RC, and over the course of the year there are additional stages around the world that the teams have to complete as they vie for the championship. Imagine driving hundreds of kilometres in the desert with nothing but a roadbook with distance data, symbols, and arrows. If anything happens, teams have to manage mechanical failures and repairs in the field, putting those successful in this sport at the epitome of reliability and speed and also highlighting the bond between man and machine. These are qualities that the BR-X3 definitely identifies with.

Fittingly, the partnership with the Defender Rally Team will see Bell & Ross equip the members with the BR-X3 Black Titanium as they test their mettle in the blazing heat of the desert. The starting race of the W2RC calendar, the Dakar Rally, was the perfect proving ground for precision, robustness, and legibility— three key pillars of Bell & Ross. According to Carlos Rosillo, Cofounder & CEO of Bell & Ross, “The Dakar Rally is a symbol of boldness, exploration and pushing beyond one’s limits — values that lie at the very heart of Bell & Ross’ DNA. The BR-X3 Black Titanium, with its iconic ‘circle within a square’ design, perfectly embodies this philosophy: precision, legibility and robustness in the most extreme conditions. We are proud to partner with Defender Rally, a team that shares our passion for adventure and our commitment to performance, and to see our watches accompany the drivers throughout this iconic race.”

With only 18 months of development, Defender Rally entered the 2026 Dakar Rally with a modified Defender OCTA called the Defender Dakar D7X-R and, during this race, won the new Stock class category and every single stage of the Dakar Rally. As the drivers celebrated, the watch sat quite clearly at home in this environment on their wrists.

Regardless of the partnership, the BR-X3 Black Titanium is definitely a robust piece of equipment. Whether it be out in the desert, in harsh jungle terrain, or just accompanying its wearer through the perils of a workday, the watch is built to withstand punishment. The titanium material means it remains light and comfortable on the wrist, while the legibility makes reading time quite intuitive. What we did appreciate about the piece as well is the availability of a power reserve indicator on the dial side of the watch. The gauge, cleverly incorporated as part of the watch’s design language, indicates all 70 hours of the watch’s power reserve so its wearer will never be caught off guard.

It is funny how even though the BR-X3 represents a bit of a departure from the hardcore aviation inspiration that Bell & Ross was founded upon, its position at the very stratosphere of sophistiation in the BR-03 Professional Collection means it is still very much flying high. What we love about the BR-X3 is also the possibilities it affords the brand. Its technical construction means the opportunities for material experimentation are quite vast. The BR-X3 Black Titanium is, of course, made with titanium components, but there is also a version in steel and anodised aluminium bits, and even more crazy is the BR-X3 Night Vision that merges luminescent material with carbon fibre directly on the case. The BR-X3 collection feels like a licence for Bell & Ross to go beyond their well-rehearsed design language to experiment with concepts and complications that won’t necessarily be found in their “bread and butter” models. And, with freedoms such as these, it is often said, the sky is the limit…