If nothing else, Bell & Ross should be commended for its commitment to audacity, which it demonstrates again with the BR-03 Astro. While the Franco-Swiss watchmaker is best known for its circle-within-a-square aesthetic, it also likes to surprise with telling challenges to conventional timekeeping. Late last year, Bell & Ross unveiled the BR-03 Horizon, a watch that proposed a slightly different way to read time; the new 41mm BR-03 Astro in black ceramic builds on this. Simply put, you are looking at three cosmic bodies that you no doubt can easily identify but we shall spell it out here since they do play the time display role that hands normally would.

The Earth, in its decidedly non-Copernican central place, remains still while the other elements perform the dance of time around it. Mars tracks the hours; the moon tracks the minutes; and the satellite tracks the seconds. Bell & Ross is being somewhat coy with its description of the mobile elements but it seems a fetching mystery. All those elements must move across the aventurine dial without disrupting its purity and the images here no doubt make you wonder how exactly this works. If so, then consider the representation of the Earth, which is actually carved into the sapphire crystal.

The brand says it is a “spherical cap” showcasing our home planet in relief. In other words, the Earth is recessed into the sapphire crystal that covers the dial. This must count as one of the most intriguing uses of this design element, which is otherwise meant to protect the dial and not get in the way of reading the time – it still boasts anti-reflective coating, which is a nice touch. In case you missed it, this use of the sapphire crystal is the audacity we speak of. What brought about this fresh take on time and craft?

“The Cupola, the observation dome of the International Space Station (ISS), inspired this watch, which acts as a kind of porthole opening onto the planets,” said Bruno Belamich, Creative Director and co-founder of Bell & Ross. “I imagined Earth seen from space in symbolic alignment with the Moon and Mars. The magic of this watch lies in its display—not as a technical interpretation of an instrument watch but, for once, in an imaginative dimension.” So, in its own standout way, the BR-03 Astro remains devoted to the aviation domain. We salute Belamich and company for their creative thinking here.

In terms of the basics, the BR-03 Astro is powered by the automatic BR-CAL.327, which is based on the Sellita SW300 movement, just as the Horizon was. The power reserve is given as 54 hours. The case, as noted above, is in micro-blasted black ceramic (making this a not so shine-happy piece), has a stated thickness of 11.5mm and is water-resistant to 100m. The strap is a combination of black rubber and black fabric. The BR-03 Astro is limited to 999 pieces.

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