Alvin Wong 20 July 2020

All-out luminescence by Bell & Ross.

Although Bell & Ross' 03-92 dive watches look very much at home on the wrists of hip designers, music producers and architects – you know, creative-types who are more than partial to the timepieces’ whimsical and distinctive case design – the brand will have you know that these tickers are certified, able-bodied performers. The BR 03-92 may appear very cool, but it is also a proper tool watch, offering performance specs that surpass ISO 6425 international standards that include 300m water-resistance, anti-shock and anti-magnetic properties.

Given that good underwater legibility is a requirement for dive watches, it comes as no surprise that Bell & Ross would endow its latest BR 03-92 with the most epic of luminescent features – a full-lume dial. Deep underwater, the BR 03-92 Diver Full Lum will probably blind schools of lanternfish. But hey, you will ALWAYS know what time it is, and when it’s time to resurface even in the darkest and murkiest waters.

Bell & Ross has been offering dedicated lume creations since 2017, when it launched the first of its ‘LUM’ line of watches with the BR 03-92 Horolum. The new BR 03-92 Diver Full Lum’s all-out luminescence is a close cousin of the BR 03-92 Full Lum, a 250-piece boutique edition from 2019. The new dive watch, however, tops its predecessor in our opinion with its applied skeleton hands and indexes that are also luminescent.

For the record, the hands and indexes are filled with Super-LumiNova with C3 pigments (light green with 100 per cent relative brightness), while the dial is coated with green Super-LumiNova paint comprising C5 pigments (green with 89 per cent relative brightness). Besides the metallic frames of the appliques to outline the hands and indexes, the slight difference in luminescence between the dial and the indicators also provide a nuanced contrast for enhanced legibility.

The BR 03-92 Full Lum is encased in matt black ceramic and is paired with a rubber or black synthetic fabric strap. For those who are familiar with Bell & Ross, the unmistakable case shape boasts lineage from the brand’s trademark round-bezel-square-case aesthetic of its iconic BR-01 Instrument watch, which the brand has adopted for its dive watches since 2018.

In the light, the BR 03-92 Full Lum looks in equal measure hip and military-esuqe, thanks to its high-contrast two-tone, black-green colour combination. Switch off the lights, and the watch brings on a proper glow-fest with the dial and displays beaming in full force. Like asking for extra cheese toppings on top of your quattro formaggi pizza, the watch's unadulterated lume may be too much to take in for some… but we are sure there are many who will also be asking, ‘Why the hell not?’

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Alvin Wong

Ex Editor-In Chief

Alvin promises not to be a douche when talking about watches. He may have scoured the Basel and Geneva watch fairs for the past 15 years, and played an instrumental role to the growth of Singapore's pioneering horological and men's lifestyle publications, but the intrepid scribe seeks to learn something new with each story he writes.