The BR 03-92 DIVER BLACK & GREEN BRONZE - for the Crispy Diver or Desk Diver

From Bell & Ross -

Courtesy of Bell & Ross

This is the latest diver from Bell & Ross, and it is minty and refreshing! Based on the now iconic BR 03 platform, this underwater time machine is unique in the world of divers in that it is not exactly round... 

Courtesy of Bell & Ross

It's Hip To Be Square!

"Back in the day" Bell & Ross made some more traditional looking divers in terms of being, well, round. But comparing the B&R divers of today to their forebears raises a few questions about form and function. And a lot of why I particularly like this watch can be summed up on the musings of Kevin Burrows and Lawrence Schlossman's magnum opus - Fuck Yeah Menswear.

Legibility - the quality of being readable.
There are a lot of dive watches out there that look great in daylight while you are braving the
dangers of your office (desk diver). But in the real world (not Instagram photos from Pitti Uomo), you actually might want to be able to reasonably read the time on your watch. This was, in many ways, the motivation behind the original design of the BR-03. I mean, yes, it does resemble a cockpit gauge. And if you are super into aviation that can be cool. But it also allows for a very clear field of view.

Presence - Let's be honest, there are a lot of round dive watches out there. Just like there are a lot of sheep out there. Just sayin'...

Steezy - meaning style with ease. This is sometimes confused and/or comingled with sprezzatura which is often more of an affectation as it is by design or intent. 

Nothing wrong with either, in the big scheme of things, but as we get back to the sheep metaphor, think Panerai = sprezzatura. Long story short? You're trying too hard, there was only one L'Avvocato (that's Gianni Agnelli for the Philistines out there), and it is unlikely that you, gentle reader, will be picking up his mantle of style anytime soon. The BR 03-92 Black & Green Bronze diver says you make your own choices. A green dial may not be your cup of 緑茶 (that's green tea, for you barbarians out there).

Courtesy of Bell & Ross

The BR 03-92 Diver Black & Green Bronze is, well, bronze. And with that comes some classic contradictions. One simple truth is that bronze will gain patina, and character. The case of a bronze watch will convey the years and share the history of both the watch and the wearer. Should you dive with it, that will happen more rapidly. But that is in many ways the joy of owning a watch, the stories that it tells. And rather than a carefully arranged narrative designed to look absent minded or half hazard (sprezzatura), this is (for me at least) the very essence of Skeezy.

Per Bell & Ross:

"...the CuSn8 bronze of the case (92% copper, 8% tin) evokes the fittings used on the most elegant of yachts, and evolves beautifully over time."

So if you are drawn to this watch as I am, here are the pertinents, straight from the source -

Limited to 999 pieces

• MOVEMENT

  calibre BR-CAL.302. Automatic mechanical. 54-hour power reserve. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds and date.

• FUNCTIONS

  hours, minutes, seconds and date.

• CASE

  42 mm wide. Satin-finished and polished CuSn8 bronze. Unidirectional rotating solid bronze bezel with 60-minute scale and black anodized aluminum ring and Bilight® dots. Screw-down crown. Crown guard. Steel case-back

• DIAL

  Green. Black hands filled with white Super-LumiNova®. Glossy black skeletonized hour and minute hands filled with white Super LumiNova® (green glow).

• CRYSTAL

  sapphire with anti-reflective coating.

• WATER-RESISTANCE

  300 metres.

• STRAP

  black rubber and ultra-resilient black synthetic fabric.

• BUCKLE

  Pin. Satin-finished and polished bronze.

Who Knows Our Customer Better...

than our customer?

As I have shared on more than one occasion, I am called upon from time to time to offer feedback/consultation to brands both big and small.  And with sales continuing to drop, and brands scrambling to try and find something to offer their customers that might stimulate them to actually buy something I was brought back to something I read several years ago in the FYMW book -

 

 

 

Shamelessly borrowed from Amazon

It was actually a riff on what an "in touch" fashion brand owner might say in the form of a memo to his staff.  A lot of it is very tongue in cheek, but one thing that the fictional fashion brand owner asked really struck a nerve with me:

"Who knows our customers better than our customers?"

And this is clearly a question that watch brands are NOT asking. 

Think about it this way, in virtually every other industry companies enlist the help of focus groups to gather information and valuable feedback on what might be the best way forward with a new product.  When I lived in San Francisco I was an active member of the "Focus Group Circuit".  It was great!  Generally once or twice a week you could go and participate.  You were fed either lunch or dinner, and paid $100 in cash for 1 hour of your time.  And I can honestly say that of the 20 or more focus groups I participated in, only about 3 of those potential new ideas ever made it to market.

Now consider some of the many watches that just did not make it, that just weren't ready for prime time.  Watches so unpopular and so unloved that they had to be stripped for their guts.  Or some that simply had to be dumped in bulk on the grey market.  It is very hard to be objective about what the buying public wants when you are the one making and promoting it.  So maybe it is time to start looking at what sold, and ask some probing questions of the people who actually bought it.  You know, crazy questions like - why did you buy this?  What did you like about it?  Do you still like it?  Why?  Why not?

I realize that this is an over simplification, but I do begin to wonder more and more how much the decisions a brand makes are driven by what they think their customers may want, as opposed to what people within the brand want.  A focus group, even after the sale has been made, will go a long way to informing future decisions - hopefully for the better.