To fully appreciate the design of the WW1 Regulateur watch one much first be familiar with some of the jumping hour dial watches Bell & Ross has produced over the years. This timepiece was new for 2013, but for 2012 Bell & Ross released another limited edition model that is the clear ancestor of this dial. That year Bell & Ross released two WW1 Heure Sautante in 18k white or pink gold with jumping hours, central minutes, and power reserve indicators. That previous 18k pink gold model eventually turned into the WW1 Regulateur that we are examining here.
I believe that Bell & Ross may have experimented with regulator-style dials before, but none quite as attractive as this. Regulator dials are pretty simple to identify because they use separate apertures for the hours, minutes, and seconds. That usually (but not always) translates into hours in an upper subdial, seconds in a lower subdial, and minutes on the larger main dial. What is very unique is how minimalistic the dial is here, although it isn’t 100% barren.
Bell & Ross uses just one numeral on the dial, and it really helps ground it. The rest of the dial uses thin baton-style hour markers for the hours and minutes, while the seconds are displayed in a more generalized manner. The dial color is also classy, being an opaline silver, which always looks good when matched to the thin blued-steel needle hands. Also, note how the subdial for the hours is slightly recessed and produced with a snailed texture that adds an additional touch of class, and prevents the dial from looking too flat.
Bell & Ross isn’t totally clear what is inside of the WW1 Regulateur watch. Though knowing Bell & Ross it is a base Swiss ETA with a module on top for the regulator-style time display. The movement is further an automatic. Over the dial, of course, is a sapphire crystal, and the case is only water resistant to 30 meters. Bell & Ross sure knows how to do “refinement” when they want to, and the biggest thing going for WW1 Regulateur is how pretty it is- even though it is designed to have a niche appearance. As a limited edition, Bell & Ross produced just 99 pieces at an arguably very steep price of about $23,000. bellross.com
