Bell & Ross Drops Trio of Chronographs For Alpine F1 Team Debut
Renault F1 is no more, long live Alpine F1.
Bell & Ross has dropped a trio of limited edition twin-register chronographs to mark the 2021 debut of the Alpine Formula One team.
The French watchmaker has been associated with the Renault F1 team since 2016, but when Renault relaunched famous French marque Alpine, and later decided to rename its Formula One team after the sporty brand, Bell & Ross needed to go back to the drawing board to take into account Alpine’s more restrained signature blue, black and white colors and its “A” logo, which serves as the counterweight on each watch’s chronograph second hand.
The A521 trio of watches, named after Alpine’s new F1 car, include the BR V3-94 automatic normally found within Bell & Ross’ Vintage collection. Limited to 500 pieces, the watch uses a 43mm stainless steel case, black dial and bi-directional rotating tachymeter bezel. Its sub dials take the shape of spoked wheels by using cut-out sections to reveal the BR-CAL.301 movement underneath, while the watch is available on either a polished and satin-finished steel bracelet or a perforated carbon-fiber effect calfskin strap.
These styling queues are carried across to the square-cased 42mm BR 03-94 with its distinctive cantilever chronograph pushers, for another limited run of 500 pieces.
Bell & Ross’ high-end BR-X1 also gets the A521 treatment in a more limited run of just 50 pieces. The 45mm grade 5 titanium watch’s open dial reveal the inner workings of the skeletonized BR-CAL.313 automatic movement and its X-shaped upper bridge, while rubber-coated titanium paddle-style chronograph pushers reflect the motorsport-inspiration behind the design.
The Bell & Ross A521 collection is available now via Bell & Ross, priced £3,600 GBP ($5,000 USD), £5,400 GBP ($7,500 USD) and £16,900 GBP ($23,500 USD) respectively..
