Bell & Ross has come out with a new line they’ve dubbed their Vintage Collection. As with all of their watches, they are heavily-influenced and informed by aviation and the delightful (from a style perspective) analog gauges that can be found in 
old planes.
Of this collection (which is comprised of the Original, Heritage, and Officer models), I’m most drawn to the Heritage pieces – there’s just something about B&R’s use of black and tan in the color combinations that draws me in.B&R has intended these to hearken back just not to the planes of the 40s, but also the timepieces that existed then as well. It certainly is a departure from their more recognizable square-cased watches, but then again, variety is the spice of life, is it not? Of the two models in this collect, the 123 is the one I’d want to put on my wrist. It has the following specs:
- Case: 41 mm steel, matte black PVD finish with screw-in caseback; 13mm thick
- Crytal: ultra-curved sapphire with anti-glare coating
- Lume: the hands and markers are lumed
- WR: 100 m
- Strap: 22mm natural leather
- Movement: ETA 2895 automatic
- MSRP: $3000 (some quick searching turned up lower pricing)
You’ll also notice that there are complications for the date, and the seconds in a sub-dial. Not overly-large, and not overly-flashy, this watch would be at home in just about any environment, be it professional or casual. Though, if I were to someday add a watch like this to my collection, I’d be very tempted to change out the strap. While the leather does appear to be nicely color-matched to the lume, I can’t help but feel a darker leather (perhaps retaining the contrasting stitching) would better serve this watch. That one minor quibble aside, this is a very functional and beautiful watch. And, if you’d like a more complex watch, you could jump up to the 126 model (shown below on the right) which adds chronograph features.
