If you have $10,900 dollars to throw at all-black watches shaped like skulls, congratulations–you have somehow found your way to the correct article. The BR 01 Cyber Skull from Bell & Ross is the kind of thing a ten-year-old boy would buy if the boy in question had unlimited resources and very little shame. In that regard, the watch possesses a certain ghastly charm. Let’s take a closer look.
The BR 01 Cyber Skull: Where Understatement Goes to Die
The press material for the BR 01 Cyber Skull watch makes a point of drawing parallels between the skull motif and the Memento Mori (mortality reminders) of stoic and humanist philosophers alike. I believe it’s highly unlikely that thinkers from either branch of philosophy would drop the amount of cash needed to buy a decent used Honda Civic on this watch, but I suppose that’s beside the point.
The design is more modernist than traditional, with the skull’s surface broken up into geometric facets. The BR 01 Cyber Skull is a play on the motifs first explored by Bell & Ross in their Skull family of watches (which debuted in 2009). According to Bell & Ross, the BR 01 Cyber Skull represents the company’s launch into “ultra-modern” shapes, which, okay, is certainly a direction to go.
The case and silhouette of the BR 01 Cyber Skull is meant to invoke the lines of the F117 Fighter jet. If you were into model-building in the 80s (and who wasn’t, am I right?) you’ll remember this plane–it was the one your older brother stole because it was the coolest. Go Google it and come right back so you have an idea of what I’m talking about.
The PR materials for the BR 01 Cyber Skull breathlessly compare the watch to traditional Japanese Origami, avant-garde art, mythology, and Sith Lords (from Star Wars, just in case you’ve been asleep for the last thirty years). That all seems a little extreme, and by now you get the idea that this is a ten-thousand-dollar watch designed for a man-boy with too much disposable income, so let’s just move on to the specs.
The BR 01 Cyber Skull’s Specs
The BR 01 Cyber Skull is water-resistant to about 164 feet, so feel free to wear it in your summer house’s pool or your winter house’s hot tub or in the ocean at your spring house, or while tubing down the river at your fall house. But don’t take it diving, or it won’t survive — which would, of course, be a real pity.
The movement is mechanical hand-wound, and a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating covers the 45-mm case. The strap is black rubber and features a black PVD-coated steel buckle, and the hour and minute hands feature Super-LumiNova technology so you can see what time it is when your date leaves the dimly-lit restaurant unexpectedly early.
The Buy
If you have the money and the will, you can purchase this limited-edition watch for $10,900 dollars. They blessedly only made 500 of them, so get one while the getting is good.
