If you are a fan of the world’s first (and only?) square dive watch from Bell & Ross, this is shaping up to be a good year for you. Hot on the heels of the launch of their BR 03-92 Diver with a full lume dial, they are now announcing one with a very iconic colour for a dive watch: Orange.
This is probably not the first orange dial you’ve seen on a dive watch, in fact, the orange colour has become something closely associated with these types of watches. Upon further research online, I found quite a few conflicting theories about why that is.
According to Hodinkee, it was Urs Eschle, the designer of the Doxa SUB 300, that first tested and found that orange was the best dial colour when trying to view his dive watch in the murky waters of Lake Neuchâtel. However, science has shown that different colours have different wavelengths and as you descend deeper underwater it gets harder for these colours to penetrate. Red is usually one of the first colours to fall off with blue being the last, which is probably why most photos that are taken underwater usually have a bluish colour. Orange will disappear somewhere in between. Regardless of the colour, the element that helps with legibility is more often contrast. This is why most seconds hand will have a little lollipop on it, so it contrasts against the dial and its easy to see at a glance if the watch is still running. So, perhaps as the orange fades away, the dial will turn into a colour that is more contrasting with the white or luminescent indices. Perhaps.
Above water, the orange dial is undoubtedly striking, lending a unique and utilitarian aesthetic to what is already a utilitarian design. And if you are a watch nerd like myself, you’ll be happy to know that Bell & Ross has also made sure that the date wheel is also in the orange colour to preserve the visual symmetry. Details matter.
As for the specs of the watch, it is the standard BR 03-92 Diver. It offers the unidirectional bezel, a screw-down crown and even a thicker 2.85mm sapphire crystal to withstand pressures of up to 30atm or 300m underwater.
The Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver Orange is limited to only 250 pieces worldwide, and can only be found at Bell & Ross Boutiques or on its e-commerce platform.
Case: Stainless steel
Case size: 42mm width
Crystal: Sapphire
Movement: Calibre BR-CAL.302
Water Resistance: 300m
Price: MYR 16,000
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