Mirror polishing, sometimes referred to as black polish, is one of the quintessential wristwatch finishing techniques. It’s a specific style of precise polishing that achieves a highly reflective, mirror-like finish to steel that can look bright white, silver or even black depending on the angle at which light hits it. It’s most often used on a watch’s case or movement but sometimes brands like to showcase its dramatic appearance across the dial as well, such as the sold out Istope x Revolution Mercury. Now Bell & Ross are showcasing the technique with the new BR-05 Grey Mirror Steel, or just BR-05 Mirror for short.
This is, in my opinion, the closest thing to a dress watch Bell & Ross have produced all year. It takes the bold, industrial styling of the BR-05, based on the instrument panels of aircraft, and presents it with a more delicate aesthetic focus. While the 40mm satin brushed case with mirror polished facets across its square design with cushion bezel is standard for the collection, pairing it with a matching mirror polished dial emphasises more of its refined elements. The polished edges in particular stand out to a much greater degree.
The dial of the BR-05 Mirror has been brought down to its bare essentials with a broad mirror disc for its base with matching mirror bathtub hour markers and central hands. The typical lumed elements, date window, minute scale and Arabic numerals have all been removed, leaving it as minimalist as possible. Creating a clean, monochrome and almost monobloc design. The phrase that comes to mind is ‘simplified but not simple’ because while it is as bare bones as possible, it still rewards careful inspection because of the way it appears to constantly evolve in different lighting conditions.
Beneath the mirror dial is the BR-CAL.321-1, based on the Sellita SW300-1 a with extended 54-hour power reserve. It’s essentially the movement that Bell & Ross break out for their more artistically inclined limited editions as it was previously used in the Artline model and stands out for its use of a full 360 degree rotor rather than the traditional wedge shape, leaning into a more sculptural feel.
The BR-05 Mirror is limited to 250 pieces and is a boutique exclusive priced at £4,800 on rubber strap or £5,300 on steel bracelet. That’s less than half the price of the aforementioned Artline, so in terms of Bell & Ross’ artistic and finishing focussed models it’s one of their more competitively priced ones. Ultimately I like the BR-05 Mirror quite a lot, any watch that can make something so ubiquitous as steel feel artisanal and artistic deserves credit.
Price and Specs:
More details at Bell & Ross.
