The skull, a historical symbol of courage and tenacity originating from warrior-pirates, has always been a part of Bell & Ross’s DNA. The first namesake themed watch was the BR 01 “Skull” launched in 2009. The subsequent Bell & Ross watches to ride the wave of the success of the Jolly Roger was the famous BR 01 Tourbillon Skull made in 2011 and a bronze-remake in 2015. In 2016, Bell & Ross took an innovative stance with its BR 01 Burning Skull concept, which had black lacquer in the recesses of the case engraving, reminiscent of the ink used by tattoo artists, as well as a more realistic three-dimensional skull.

Bell & Ross Laughing Skull Watch

Today, the brand’s accumulated knowledge in its artisanal skills reveals a new Skull interpretation, the BR 01 Laughing Skull, featuring Bell & Ross’s first ever in-house movement and automaton. While all variations of these watches in the skull family have similar core feature, the new BR 01 Laughing Skull, is a watch that takes this further, thanks to its animated surprise.

Unlike its static predecessors, the skull features a moving mandible when the hand-wound movement is manipulated, mimicking the “laughing skull”. Other than the animation system, the next biggest difference is the new in-house BR-CAL.206, also a skull-shaped calibre supported by 4 bridges extending from the crossbones in the case to the main plate in a single assembly, securing the movement and the skull to appear to float weightlessly in centre of the case.

The BR 01 Laughing Skull is a powerful statement piece that also comes in two additional versions for those who crave a touch of elegance – the BR 01 Laughing Skull Light Diamond, has diamonds that trace the skull-shaped bezel outline. And the second, the BR 01 Laughing Skull Full Diamond, takes the previous version as the base, and then covers the remaining case surface area with more diamonds with four larger diamonds in place of the iconic screws of the BR case for a total of 394 diamonds with a 2.891-carat weight.

Symbolic in more ways than one, the BR 01 Laughing Skull is proof that a serious watch can also be fun.