Watch Review: Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro
It is so great to still be excited about a new watch launch — and it’s almost as great to receive a physical sample weeks, as opposed to months or more, after that fortuitous impression. When I first saw the Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro watch (reference BR03A-EMM-CE/SRB), something about it just clicked for me. The square case, the odd indications, the all-black theme against a few little droplets of color, and a price that was less (and not more) preposterous than I expected based on said first impressions all added up to what is a rare occurrence among luxury watch novelties: an all-around positive surprise. I wanted to check it out hands-on to see if any of that magic was actually tangible, and so here it is, the review of the Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro watch.
I approach these playful and themed watches with as much scrutiny as more regular-styled timepieces. Why? Because it is easy to get carried away by whimsical or fantastical presentation, and in my experience, it has not always been alien to brands to cut some corners here and there to reduce the cost and bump up that profit margin. These brands capitalize, if you like, on what they suspect will be a design home run. So, before we talk about what makes this Bell & Ross BR-03 the Astro, let’s look at all that makes it a watch.
First, the time display. In a way, it is less than ideal — but probably not in the way you are thinking now. There are countless watches out there without minute tracks and even hour markers, so to have hands or “hands” pointing into oblivion is not at all exclusive to the Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro. With that comes compromised legibility, as it’s not always easy to tell whether it’s e.g. 10:17 or 10:26. So yeah, there can be a bit of flying in the dark, but if that triggers you, then you probably won’t ever end up with an Astro or any watch that has this feature. If it doesn’t, it’s time to explore a new world of possibilities.
I would never downplay the hysterical concept of illegibility on an expensive watch. Beyond that, this is an expensive watch that is illegible not because you can’t see the indicators but because you can’t discern what they happen to indicate. To be fair, every 15-minute interval into the hour is easy to identify, so there will be times when you can look at such a watch and confidently tell the time.
I said “not in the way you are thinking,” so let’s get to that bit: On the Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro watch, the hour hand is small and is near the edge of the dial while the minute hand is wide and is closer to the center of the dial. Of all the wonky things about this BR-03, this took me nearly a week to get used to. One just trusts a hand that is stubby and near the center to be the hour hand, but all that goes out the window when they are flipped around, and one is the Moon and the other is Mars. Hilarious, isn’t it? To top it all off, you also get a small satellite that orbits the Earth in 60 seconds.
On the wrist, the BR-03 Astro wears great — much better than any large square watch would normally have any right to wear. It is said to measure 41mm wide, but you should always take diameter claims on square watches with a grain of salt, or better yet, just disregard them entirely. With the exception of the Reverso, every square watch wears larger than its spec sheet would suggest. I can wear a 41mm wide watch all day long, and it will look OK on my 6.75″ wrist, but this “41mm” Bell & Ross was pushing it. Whether or not you can get away with a 41mm square watch depends on your wrist size and your taste, so be sure to try one on.
More importantly, it is just 11.50mm thick. At times when brands like Seiko and Blancpain (two recent executions just off the top of my head) think that three-hand watches over 14-15mm thick are acceptable, Bell & Ross (hardly the first brand on people’s mind when it comes to peak focus on watchmaking prowess) comes with a novel time display, a 100-meter water resistance rating, ceramic case, sapphire crystal, and 54-hour movement with self-winding and packages it all at 11.50mm thick. As I said in my Joker review many moons ago, funky and fun watches can only truly ever work if they are well-made and perform well when compared against regular timepieces. Thinness, for me, is hugely important.
The watch is secured around the wrist with a rather preposterously sized pin buckle in black PVD, with a micro-blasted finish to go with the ceramic case. The rubber strap is wide, supple, and intricate in its design — it is wide at the lugs and tapers nicely, the holes have beveled edges, the loops are also angled in their design, and the strap has a recessed area on both sides. On their own, none of these are a big deal, but added together, they make up for a quality feel and look, which is not a given at this price point and sometimes over.
Now, about the “Astro” bit. What appeared to be a well-made and fun watch on official images has turned out to be a beautifully thought-out watch in real life. The base of the dial is a plate of blue aventurine that appears to have sucked all the glitter out from all other aventurine dials. The aventurine used in watches is a synthetic material — even its name hints at the fact that it was discovered accidentally in the 15th century by Venetian glassmakers. Bell & Ross spares not a word for this story; it just says: “blue aventurine plate representing space.”
When viewed in person, it really is an amazing execution of this material, one of the most sparkly and yet dark and mysterious blue that I have seen over the years. A bog-standard watch with such a dial all on its own would be a joy to look at. The Mars, if you look closely, has tiny swirls. I discovered this impressive detail through macro photography, as it is such a delicate detail on a minuscule component. The Moon (the minute hand, remember?) and the satellite (the seconds hand) are crafted from metal that is laser-engraved to achieve their characteristic surface and appearance.
If you hold it just the right way, what I imagine to be a disc that carries one of the floating hands displays a well-controlled, smooth reflection. You can even play around with it so that it appears only halfway, as you can see on certain images above. You know it’s not on the front sapphire crystal because the Earth appears without a reflection over it. This centerpiece is recessed into the sapphire from the inside and is a particularly intelligently picked visual representation of our planet, something more restrained and unusual as opposed to a cheesy or familiar look. A standout feature, to my eyes, was the extremely dark blue or even black its night side turned into — I appreciate near-perfect blacks on an LED computer screen, too, so this might just be a pet peeve of mine.
The case is in black ceramic, so at long last, we can wave goodbye to black Bell & Ross watches developing an unsightly patina around their edges as PVD-coated cases used to do. While there are no fancy edges or polishes, the overall impression is nevertheless solid. Even the caseback appears to be ceramic — a rarity among ceramic-cased watches, as round watches tend to have a threaded caseback, whereas the one on the BR-03 is secured with screws. You also get some bloating on the back, although I do miss that one single screw with the warning label “DO NOT UNSCREW” so tauntingly written next to it on some B&R watches.
All in all, the Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro turned out to be everything I expected it to be and then some — an extremely rare occurrence these days. It presents a range of executions and details of such high quality that I simply was not expecting, and matches all those with a charming and emotional daily wearing experience. Unlike the design and execution, the price is far from preposterous. Although not cheap, this time you do get a fair bit of watch for your hard-earned money. The Bell & Ross BR-03 Astro is priced at $4,800 USD. You can learn more at the brand’s website.
