Bell & Ross – BR 05 ARTLINE Steel & Gold Edition

Bell & Ross – URBAN BR 05 AUTO ARTLINE Steel & Gold 40mm Edition 2024 

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 AN AERONAUTICAL INSPIRATION

Launched in 2022, the Artline range offers, through the BR 05 urban collection, a strong design inspired by the Art Deco movement of the 1930s interwar period.  

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"This name indicates that it incorporates an artistic dimension (art) in its design (line). When you look at it, you immediately think of the American Streamline style", explains Bruno Belamich, Creative Director and co-founder of Bell & Ross. 

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The Streamline movement, initiated in the United States in the 1930s, perfectly exemplifies a harmonious blend of form, materials, and technical know-how. Blending industrial design with aerodynamic elements, Streamline embodies the ascent of functionalist aesthetics.

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This movement also marks the birth of a new profession: that of the designer. These designers are not just engineers or draftsmen. Their task is to conceive lines and colour combinations that will bring originality and aesthetics to industrial products. 

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The pioneers of this movement, notably Raymond Loewy, introduced everyday objects that embraced the avant-garde lines of contemporary trains, aircraft and automobiles. By embracing this trend with the Artline series, Bell & Ross pays tribute to these designers.

  A JEWEL OF STRENGTH

Acclaimed in the 70s and 80s especially in the United States, the gold/steel combination brings to these timepieces a rare and precious elegance by combining refinement and power. As a whole new generation rediscovers the boldness and flair of that era of creative virtuosity and freedom, the marriage of gold and steel is making a strong comeback in contemporary watchmaking. Bell & Ross is, of course, appropriating this in its own way.

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The new BR 05 Artline Steel & Gold is anything but nostalgic or neo-vintage. As a contemporary urban watch, it takes the stance of not choosing between strength and refinement. "With the Artline, we aimed to offer a watch that is adorned and elegant at the same time. Decorating its large surfaces (case and central links) allowed us to reveal the potential of the BR 05 through the prism of refinement, the precious and jewellery", says Bruno Belamich, Creative Director at Bell & Ross. Another significant advantage is that by combining these two materials, a precious watch with parts in 18-carat rose gold becomes more accessible.

A PRECIOUS AND POWERFUL 
TIMEPIECE DRAWING FROM AVIATION

On the new BR 05 Artline Steel & Gold, one graphical element immediately catches the eye of fine watchmaking connoisseurs: the gold elements. The bezel and central links of the integrated bracelet are fluted. Appreciated for both high-end watchmaking craftsmanship and goldsmith ornamentation, the reliefs of this finish evoke modern architecture.

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Unusual on technical pieces, the fluted design provides the BR 05 Artline with a distinctive and singular character. The Artline line stands apart from the rest of Bell & Ross's BR 05 collection, carving out its own unique space while still honouring the defining characteristics of its lineage.

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The ripples created by the fluting also hold a resonating evocative and emotional power for aviation enthusiasts. This is, of course, one of Bell & Ross' favourite areas of expression. 

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On the BR 05 Artline, they evoke the aluminium fuselages of 1940s cruise planes, known for their particularly sturdy structure. "Several references were swirling in my mind while creating this piece. The first of these was about air travel", confirms Bruno Belamich, Creative Director at Bell & Ross, who is now delighted to incorporate a more valuable dimension into the Maison's urban collection. Underneath the refinement lies strength.

DISTINCTIVE DIAL AND A HIGH-PERFORMANCE MOVEMENT

The large numerals typical of Bell & Ross's time indicators give way to baton indices coated with luminescent material, just like the hour and minute hands. For this highly exclusive limited series of 99 pieces, the seconds hand is made of gold to complement the new exclusive colour of the dial.

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A bright sunlit brown that requires a specific manufacturing technique. To achieve the desired effect, the metal plate from which the dial is cut must be coated with a tinted brown varnish. This dial adorns a precise and high-performing Swiss self-winding movement, the BR-CAL.321-1 calibre, equipped with a reassuring power reserve of 54 hours. A sapphire case back on this 40mm watch, waterproof to 100 metres, reveals the finishes and the full 360° oscillating weight.

Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO   Abounding in symbolism, the new BR 05 Artline Steel & Gold embraces multiple and complementary references, blending architectural rigour, versatile urban style, modernist industrial aesthetics, and aeronautical evocations. A statement of contemporary elegance.

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 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Collection: URBAN

Model: BR 05 AUTO ARTLINE Steel & Gold Edition 

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Ref:   BR05A-EL-GLST/SSG   -


Movement
Calibre BR-CAL.321-1.
Automatic mechanical. 54-hour power reserve.

Functions: hours, minutes, small seconds and date at 3 o’clock.
Case
Diameter: 40 mm, 10.33 mm thick.

Satin-finished and polished steel and 18 ct rose gold with striated bezel.
Screw-down crown.
Crown guard.
Sapphire case-back with 360° oscillating weight.
Water-resistance: 100 metres.
Dial
Brown sunray. Applique indices filled with white Super-
LumiNova® (green glow).
Skeletonised hour and minute hands filled with white Super-LumiNova® (green glow.)
Strap
Two-colour satin-finished and polished steel and 18 ct rose gold with striated links.
Folding. Satin-finished and polished steel

 

🔰 Edition of ✅99 pieces

🔴 Price: Pre-order only Delivery in July  $ 12,800 / 12,900 EUR -

 

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Press Release - 2022
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Schofield – OBSCURA Damascus Steel Edition

Schofield – OBSCURA Damascus Steel 44mm Edition 2024

Obscura because this watch is explicitly obscure, where a list of design choices, materials, and finishes would suggest it has too much going on. But the watch was designed as a whole so everything had to work. This creation is unfettered by expense, detail, materials, and craftsmanship.

The Obscura is a watch that began in 2017 and and has since been constantly adjusted and refined. A project of self-indulgence. “It is my best work and finally I can retire, happy. I am not retiring of course and probably never will, the point being the Obscura is unfettered by expense, detail, materials and craftsmanship. A watch that could only ever be made now, with the experience, team and makers accumulated over the last 15 years,” says Giles Ellis of Schofield.

In summary the Obscura is an artefact. It was designed specifically within all the normal watch constraints, i.e. a round watch that tells the time with central hour and minute hands but manipulated to look less conventional and more like a mysterious timing device. Something (when housed in its canister), that if discovered in the undergrowth should probably be left alone, or handed in. This is a watch of suspicious origins, perhaps military, perhaps alien. It is obscure, subtly so and definitely more than the sum of its parts, the details of which tell the Obscura’s story.

Ellis elaborates, “Obscura because it is obscure like some of my designs can be, or at least parts of them. Nothing is done without reason but sometimes those reasons are hard to articulate in words. So, this watch is explicitly obscure where a list of bullet points outlining design choices, materials and finishes would belie a watch with too much going on - something I generally dislike. The Obscura had to work regardless of this, which is why it took so long.”

The watch was designed as a whole and if one element changed, everything had to follow. It is obscure because it uses Damascus steel but unlike anything used before in watchmaking. However, the watch is not about it being Damascus, that is just a part of it. It is not about the triple glazed case back or the lume tracks in a rhodium dial, the odd hands and a statement crown. All obscure choices on paper perhaps, but here as a whole, not at all.

The case is Damascus steel made for this project by the lads at Vegas Forge in the States that uses enormous Nazel Hammers to smash the different steels together. The design chosen for the Obscura moves away from the ubiquitous wavy form that so many associate with Damascus and appears more cellular. Akin to Super Conductor material but timeless, traditional and artisan.

The recognisable Schofield case shape is fully machined and finished in Sussex by acid etching the surface, less for colour but more for texture. In a more recent update we added bronze bushings around the strap bar holes. This contrasting material acts like a friction bearing but also frames the steel strap bar screws, creating an obvious boundary and shadow line.

The case back is built around the three smoked sapphire crystals in the centre. A grey PVD coating is used to partially obscure the manual wind Unitas movement beneath. These crystals slightly magnify elements on the movement, like the blued screws, which scintillate as they catch the light. The three circles in a triangle is a classic Sci-Fi meme - think Predators tri-beam laser sight or a UFO undercarriage, but they also represent planets among the stars.

The fonts are interesting, obscure, one that could be Mayan, Witcher or Incal – who knows? It does not rank for legibility but is still cool. The other shows semaphore flag positions - a contracture of the N and the D in this alphabet makes the CND logo, a masterpiece of design by Gerald Holtom done in 1958. It is worth noting that all the detail on the case back is letters up, not down, meaning that it is the background that is machined away. It is then DLC coated and the top surface ground back to give contrast.

The Obscura dial is an extremely complex, multi-levelled affair with runnels of Super-LumiNova in different colours and different emissions (the glow colour). Schofield has mostly been ’business at the front, party at the back’, and lume design is no different - austere in the day and a laser show at night. Some of the Super-LumiNova was developed for us, not pigmenting which we and many others have done, but the emission colours. Concept luming is something we know a thing or two about. The dial base is dark grey rhodium-plated with a fine matt texture.

When designing the Obscura dial the question was how can it be more interesting and moderately obscure within the constraints of using ‘normal’ hands that rotate around a central point? To start with the hour and minute hands are different colours, the minute hand skeletonised, the hour hand lumed. At 12 o’clock the hands align to reveal the lume strip of the hour hand through the window of the minute hand. The minute hand obscures the lume ring on the dial beneath, thereby marking time at night with an absence of luminescence. The sub seconds ‘dial’ is again a milled pocket of Super-LumiNova and unusually the seconds hand sweeps beyond its boundary. The sub-dial is white, the hand blue and the dot - red, white and blue - just a nod to our British manufacture.

The crown is oversized like all Schofield crowns, better for leverage and easier to handle. A DLC coated pull out type, best for manual wind movements. It has fine knurling and our nail groove, multiple steps and different finishes but the real fun is with the red/pink Super-LumiNova fill in the engraved front face. A glowing dot under your cuff, a concept we introduced with the Blacklamp in 2013. The DLC crown colour matches the minute hand and the buckle, the crown lume colour with the red flanks in the dial. The dial base with the case back.

The exclusive Obscura strap is a high quality Italian tanned and British finished grey calf with a mottled and matt finish (called Cloud leather). The underside is our bark calf with green foiled logo. All other Schofield straps will fit the Obscura. The box is not a box - but a canister. Made specifically for the Obscura and expanding the idea of dubious providence. An object of beauty in its own right, designed to be displayed. Inside the watch spins on a gimbal, negating the need for upholstery. 

The design is based on Japanese tea caddies and military ordnance with the stainless steel bolt resembling a percussion cap of sorts. This buckle was also designed for the Obscura and retro-fittable to all other Schofields, this is why the Obscura buckle is not Damascus, that was too obvious and watch specific. Overall, it is slightly bigger than the old types, an appropriate shift in the visual balance of weight. The buckle uses a blued pocketed strap bar that prevents accidental skidding-off with a screwdriver. Engraved and paint-filled with a negative meniscus reminiscent of steam engine name badges.

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 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Movement
Calibre Unitas 6498-2, Geneva stripes, blue screws. Manual wind
    Functions: Hours, minutes, sub seconds
    Power reserve 46 hours
    Diameter 36.6mm/16.5”’
    Height 4.50mm
    Jewels 17
    Frequency 18,000 VPH
Case
Damascus steel. Stainless
    Diameter 44mm
    Crystal diameter 35.5mm
    Height not including lugs 15mm
    Width between lugs 24mm
    Lug length 52.7mm
    Weight with strap and buckle 128 grammes
    Crystal: Double dome sapphire, Swiss AR coatings in green or red
    Case Back: Text-up, three window - smoked grey sapphire crystals, DLC coated and brushed finish
    Crown: Double o-ring pull out type with nail groove, Super-LumiNove filled, DLC
    Water resistance 200m
Dial
Multi-level, electro-plated, machined grooves of Super-LumiNova
    Date: None
    Luminescence: Super-LumiNova C3, pink/red with green, blue, purple and orange emissions
    Hands: Machined hands (thick) Sage green, blue (seconds) and DLC
Strap
    Buckle: Obscura Best Ever type, DLC with red paint fill. 
    Brushed and bead blast, laser engraved 
    24/22mm Cloud grey leather

Box: Polyester and steel canister
Serial: Limited to 40 watches not individually numbered

British made    Warranty 2 years

🔰 Limited Availability: 40 pieces 

🔴PRICE: £ 9,558.00 💰

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Jaeger-LeCoultre – POLARIS New Models Collection 2024

Jaeger-LeCoultre – POLARIS New Models Collection 2024

SPORTY ELEGANCE FOR EVERYDAY ADVENTURES

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  A NEW MODEL AND NEW DIAL COLOURS 
IN THE POLARIS COLLECTION

Key Facts: 

• Introducing the Polaris Geographic – a signature Jaeger-LeCoultre complication that reinterprets travel time
• The Polaris Date features a gradient dial in a newly created ocean grey lacquer
• The Polaris Perpetual Calendar is presented in pink gold with a new gradient green lacquer dial

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Jaeger-LeCoultre continues to enrich the Polaris collection in 2024. New to Polaris, the Maison’s signature Geographic travel time complication is reinterpreted for this elegant, sporty collection, while two existing models – Polaris Date and Polaris Perpetual Calendar – are offered with new dial colours.

POLARIS: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s spirit of elegance interpreted in contemporary sporting style

When Jaeger-LeCoultre revived the historic Polaris name in 2018, it redefined the modern sporty-elegant watch with an entirely new line of timepieces conceived for everyday adventures. 

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Deftly balancing the practical functions and robust capabilities of a sports watch with Jaeger-LeCoultre’s distinctively elegant and timeless aesthetic, the Polaris collection pays direct homage to the Maison’s eponymous diving watches of the 1960s.

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With their high-performing calibres and distinctive style, the watches of the Polaris collection capture the sporting spirit of their predecessors, reinterpreting their vintage appeal in elegant and confidently contemporary style to create highly versatile, modern classics.

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The Polaris collection’s strong design codes are anchored in cases distinguished by off-centred crowns, taut lines, glass-box crystals, narrow bezels and a dynamic mix of brushed and polished surfaces. The distinctive dial architecture is complemented by skeletonised hands, assertively designed Arabic numerals and elongated trapezoid indexes. 

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All elements are coated in SuperLuminova for optimum legibility in low light conditions. Complex in construction, the Polaris dial is enhanced by gradient colour and the use of different decorative finishes – opaline, graining, sunray-brushing and snailing, according to the model – beneath a coating of rich and shiny lacquer. The colour is graduated from light to dark, adding great visual depth and dynamism to the dials.

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Lacquering is a lengthy and exacting process, with each layer of coating being manually applied. It begins with the application of up to four layers of colour, then one or two layers of black, to create the gradient. 

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The challenge lies in perfectly controlling both the shade and the gradient, so that the dial sections match perfectly. This is followed by 30 coats of translucent lacquer, to add depth and richness. The process is completed by polishing the components to a perfect finish.

Introducing the Polaris Geographic – a signature complication that reinvents travel time

Continuing the tradition of adding useful auxiliary functions to the Polaris collection, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces the Polaris Geographic. La Grande Maison’s unique interpretation of the travel watch, the Geographic has become a signature complication of the Manufacture.

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Rather than indicating only the hour of a second time zone, the Geographic complication also provides a 24-hour Night and Day indicator and, in an aperture at the bottom of the dial, displays the name of a city relating to each of the 24 major time zones, with those that observe daylight savings clearly marked. 

This gives travellers the option of setting the second time according to location (by turning the crown at 10 o’clock), rather than needing to calculate the time difference; when a city is chosen, the corresponding time is automatically displayed. Thanks to a stop-seconds feature, this second time zone is accurate to the hour, minute and second.

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The lacquer dial features a new colour – ocean-grey.  Evocative with an air of mystery, calling to mind the colour of the sea on a cloudy day, it is applied in a double gradient finish that adds visual depth and dynamism, and is coated with 35 layers of lacquer. 

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The displays are arranged in a pleasingly asymmetric layout, with the second time zone in a sub-dial at 6 o’clock and the power reserve indicator in the upper left sector of the dial. Orange accents draw the eye to key information points, contrasting with the ocean-grey and adding a lively touch to the overall composition.

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The sapphire crystal case-back reveals the finely finished automatic movement, Calibre 939. A quintessential example of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s approach to watchmaking, which combines mechanical elegance with high performance, it offers a power reserve of 70 hours. Like all of the Maison’s calibres, the movement was designed, produced, finished and assembled within its own Manufacture in Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux.

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Underlining the versatility of this confident and refined expression of a highly useful complication, the new Polaris Geographic is presented with an interchangeable folding buckle and a pair of interchangeable straps – textured black rubber and blue-grey canvas – that enable a change in style and attitude in a matter of moments.

New colours add fresh allure to distinctive lacquered dials

The Polaris collection is further enriched as two models are offered with new dial colours – created with the Polaris collection specifically in mind. 

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The Polaris Date is presented with a gradient ocean-grey dial that elevates the confident modernity of its design to a new level and the Polaris Perpetual Calendar is offered in pink gold with an elegant and visually striking gradient green dial that perfectly complements the richness and warmth of the case metal. Both dials feature the Polaris signatures of three different surface textures, and double-gradient colour finished with 35 layers of lacquer to create visual richness and depth. Subtle orange highlights add a note of sporty dynamism.

 Introduced in 2018, the year that the contemporary Polaris collection was launched, the Polaris Date is the epitome of sporty elegance, its link to the design of the Maison’s classic 1960s diving watches very evident in the uncomplicated modernity of the dial, as well as the signature double crown. One crown is used for adjusting the time, the other for rotating the inner bezel. 

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Visible through the sapphire case-back, the new-generation automatic Calibre 899, entirely created in-house, offers a 70-hour power reserve – highly practical for today’s active lifestyles. The Polaris Date is presented on a textured rubber strap that is easily interchangeable with a metal bracelet of other straps from the Polaris range. The 42mm steel case is water-resistant to 20 bar.

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The Polaris Perpetual Calendar, introduced to the collection in 2022, features one of horology’s most complex, useful and greatly prized complications. A miniature mechanical computer, the perpetual calendar always shows the correct date, automatically adjusting for the different duration of months and even for leap years. It needs no manual correction until 2100, and, after that, only on centenaries that are not also leap years. 

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The automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 868, offering a power reserve of 70 hours, was designed, produced and assembled within the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre.

With an emphasis on symmetry and legibility, three slightly recessed sub-dials display the date, day and month, balanced by a moon-phase display at 6 o’clock, which features the age of the moon as well as its phases in both Hemispheres – a pleasing reminder that calendars had their origins in astronomical phenomena. 

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The 42mm pink gold case features an interchangeable strap system enabling rapid changes between the two straps presented with the Polaris Perpetual Calendar – black alligator for a more dressy mood and textured dark green rubber for a more sporty style.

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The new additions to the Polaris line amplify the relaxed and contemporary elegance of the collection, while underlining its sporty and purposeful character, anchoring it ever more strongly as a modern classic perfectly suited to life’s everyday adventures.

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TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Model:  POLARIS GEOGRAPHIC 42mm   🔴PRICE  : US$: 16.100 $💰

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 Reference: Q9078640

Case: Steel
Dimensions: 42mm diameter x 11.54 mm thick
Calibre: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 939
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, second time-zone, power reserve, 24 time-zones, night and day display
Power Reserve: 70 hours
Dial: Gradient ocean-grey lacquer
Water resistance: 10bar
Strap: Black rubber and blue-grey canvas

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TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Model:  POLARIS DATE 42mm  🔴PRICE  : US$: 11.100 $💰

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 Reference: Q9068650

Case: Steel
Dimensions: 42 mm diameter x 13.92 mm thick
Calibre: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 899
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date, inner rotating bezel
Power Reserve: 70 hours
Dial: Gradient ocean-grey lacquer
Water resistance: 20 bar
Strap: Black rubber

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TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Model: POLARIS PERPETUAL CALENDAR 42mm

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• Reference: Q908263J  Green  🔴PRICE  : US$: 52.500 $💰
• Reference: Q908269j   Blue

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Case: Pink Gold 750/1000 (18 carats)
Dimensions: 42 mm diameter x 11.97 mm thick
Calibre: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 868
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, perpetual calendar (day, date, month, year), moon phases in both Hemispheres and age of the moon, adjustment security zone, inner rotating bezel
Power Reserve: 70 hours
Dial: Gradient green, blue lacquer
Water resistance: 10 bar
Strap: Green rubber, black alligator leather

  UP TO 8 YEARS OF WARRANTY

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Press Release - 2024
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