It was during the Melbourne lockdown that I attended WatchFest 2020 online. I think I was already with whisky in hand, but before or after Manu cooked the thickest piece of meat I’ve ever seen. The Melbourne Bell & Ross boutique guys came online and showed us some of their current range. My understanding of B&R up to then was either their traditional eye catching ‘Circle in Square with 4 screws BRO1’ design or their more recent and very good looking ‘Vintage’ chronograph design. I’d never thought about purchasing before as the BR01 design doesn’t sit well on my wrist, and I have other old and new watches similar to their Vintage designs. So I’m watching the guys and all the watches until they pull out a Bell & Ross BR05 Skeleton. Wow!

The Bell & Ross BR05 Chronograph in Blue looked amazing, but at 42mm I knew it would be too big for my tiny wrist, even on a bracelet. And then, they presented the BR05 Blue Skeleton. BAM! All the Genta design that I love was there, the integrated bracelet, the batons, hands and a blue dial. However B&R made it all work with their (BR01) round dial in square case with four screws in the corners.

I have always really disliked skeleton watches, so I wondered why I instantly loved the Bell & Ross BR05 Blue Skeleton? I now know there are two reasons. Most skeleton watches have a crystal but no dial, and even worse, usually you can see your wrist and arm hair through the case back. the BR05 has a blue dial in addition to the crystal, so sometimes the blue dial reads transparent, sometimes opaque (which is also helped by the fact that you can’t really see all the way through the movement due to a 360 rotor as well). Maybe it was because I’d had a few drinks, maybe it was lockdown, but I didn’t run out and buy it straight away.

Some weeks later my mate in London who was on the hunt for a Blue dial Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, sent me a link to the BR05 Blue Chronograph and asked me what I thought. My response was that he would buy it immediately while continuing his search for the RO. My next response was to pick up the phone and call the Melbourne B&R boutique and speak with Harry, who informed me that fortuitously they had just received a BR05 Blue Skeleton on bracelet. I was in there with watch on wrist by 5pm. Like all new acquisitions, I haven’t really taken it off for a month, except when coxing with my North Flag, also an integrated bracelet by coincidence. With a $10k budget cap on watches, I will never own a RO, so for me the BR05 Blue Skeleton gives me everything I love in form and function.