Bell & Ross BR 01 Aviation Instrument Watches

Founded in 1992 Swiss brand Bell & Ross have been releasing watches based directly on aviation instruments since 2010 and at Baselworld they released another set of three watches inspired by aircraft instruments. This time the designs of the watches are based on instruments used for flying and navigation. These watches are a part of B&R s flight instrument collection along with last years Horizon, Altimeter and Turn Coordinator watches.

The BR 01-92 Heading Indicator is based on a piece of aircraft equipment called the gyrocompass which is also sometimes known as a Heading Indicator , this is used to display the aircraft`s course in both autopilot and manual modes. The dial has been constructed from three concentric discs using a similar concept to B&R s Compass and Radar watches, the discs have been graduated for hours and minutes.

On the outer disc is a yellow pointer which is used to indicate the hours while the middle disc is used to indicate the minutes. Featuring a yellow hand the disc at the center indicates the seconds. Also on the outer disc just the same as the gyrocompass there are indications of W,E, and S (for West, East and South) the N(for North) have been placed next to the yellow triangle used to indicate the hours. A yellow outline of a plane C also just as seen on a real gyrocompass- is engraved underneath the crystal as well as yellow hour markers.

Since each disk weighs 30 times more than a watch hand, they needed to be extra-light in order to reduce neither the power reserve nor the accuracy of the watch, while still needing to be strong enough to avoid deformation and friction. The watch posed a technical challenge since each disc is http://www.mrjack.co.uk/omega-watches-uk.html about 30 times heavier than a watch hand. So the discs needed to be both extra light so as to not compromise accuracy or use too much power as well being rigid enough to prevent deformation. Bell & Ross s designers achieved this by developing special new materials and techniques, furthermore as the discs rotate an adjustment at the level of microns takes place in order to ensure the discs remain parallel.The Bell & Ross BR 01-92 Airspeed.This model takes its design cues from the anemometer, a device http://www.mrjack.co.uk/hublot-watches-uk.html used to measure an aircrafts speed. The BR 01-92 Airspeed presents a fairly traditional looking aviation styled dial that has borrowed graphical elements from the anemometer making it more colourful and unconventional. The hour, minute and second graduations are separated reflecting the same layout as the device it s based on, this places emphasis on the minutes with the hours indicated at the centre.

Green, white and yellow are the colours used in an anemometer to indicate levels of criticality and on the watch are used to separate quarter hour zones on the outer ring. A white photoluminescent coating has been used for the hands and indices.

The design of the BR 01-97 Climb echoes the instrument called the variometer or vertical speed indicator which is used to determine whether a plane is level, descending or ascending by checking the atmospheric pressure. It mimicks the design of the original instrument by replacing http://www.mrjack.co.uk/breitling-watches-uk.html the indication of vertical speed with a power reserve indicator which is shown in yellow and matches the typeface of the original instrument. A small aperture at the 3 o clock position is used to show the date.