BELL & ROSS BR03-92 Diver Brown BRONZE

It's the same bronze brick but bearing a new beautiful brown paint job! Bell & Ross expand their popular BR 03-92 Diver portfolio with the addition of another new bronze model offering a further Limited Edition dial color for the exclusive collection.

Bell & Ross's uniquely square-cased diver’s model has been around for a few years, now and it seems to gaining popularity owing to the fact that is becoming ever diverse. 

Each year since its debut, B&R have been adding a couple of new variants of which one is usually a Limited Edition bronze model like this one. Last year RED was used to great effect for B&R's square, bronze-cased diver; for 2022, a favorite bronze pairing (brown) has been adopted for the bronze series and it is imo a match made in heaven. Well perhaps a toss up against GREEN or BLUE. But better looking than NAVY or the CORTINA SE made for the Singaporean market or even the OG bronze model in BLACK.  But getting back to this brown edition, its case and bezel have been constructed from satin-polished CuSn8 Bronze, an alloy with a reddish tone that was first popularized by Panerai over a decade ago. I could be wrong but I think the previous B&R models used Al (aluminum) Bronze which has a more sandy tone but is supposed to be tougher than its better looking CuSn8 cousin. CuSn8 btw combines 92% Copper and 8% Tin, which is why it looks so red. BRONZE itself is inextricably linked to diving lore as it was historically used for deep-sea diving helmets among other maritime components. Because bronze develops a patina, you can see that the side of this watch is already looking a bit like one of those bronze diving relics - not me an old diving helmet like the one used for the case-back's engraving. This latest variant has a brown aluminum anodized bezel and matching brown lacquered dial as well as brown leather strap to go with the brown bronze giving the watch a uniformed but imo perfect look. I know I'm like a bloomin' broken record but a ceramic or even a Sapphire inlay would make more sense than aluminum. 

I think that an aluminum bezel inlay would possibly be a deal breaker for me. How about you? The BR 03-92 Diver Brown Bronze is available as a Limited Edition of 999 pieces as indicted by its Stainless steel case-back markings where you will also find said engraved old school diving helmet there to reinforce the watch’s spiritual connection with those pioneering days of deep sea diving. Btw the BR 03-92 Diver Brown Bronze just as any other diver in the family, fully meets all the standards for diving watches set by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, ISO 6425 and is water-resistant to 300 meters.

Finally this tasty bronzed brownie is delivered on a matte brown leather strap with contrast stitching for added vintage vibes but can also be spec’d on rubber for diving if required.

Thoughts? My post from last year correctly predicted that brown would be the next choice for the bronze series but it was an obvious choice. 

So perhaps next year B&R could consider scrapping the bronze LEs in favor of a new direction such as, I don't know? I guess I'm over bronze. So I would easily choose this MIL. this LUM or even THIS over bronze. But what about you?