In order to get new inspiration for a watch collection, Bell & Ross designers have turned to the skies for the latest challenge after designing both a race car and a motorcycle in concept, but this time the goal is to design an aircraft capable of actually competing in the Reno Air Races in record-breaking style. To be honest, it’s still an extremely cool one, now the new style Bell & Ross BR V2-94 Racing Bird Chronograph has appeared, of course its sibling three-hand BR V1-92 Racing Bird is well known. 
One of the most thing i like about Bell & Ross is that the brand seems to make no effort to hide behind the fact that its designers, not its heritage or its strongest asset with some famous ambassador or military group. And when the designers design, and the watchmakers make watches, they are just do what they are good at, fake watch fans win. The Racing Bird is a wonderful example of this. In fact, there is no different with the V2-94 Bellytanker or the V2-94 Garde-Côtes models from previous years in mechanical design, but that’s fine. What we’re essentially looking at here, is a palette swap, albeit an extremely effective one inspired by an actual working propeller-powered aircraft that Bell & Ross designed.
As suggested, the V2-94 Racing Bird is regarded as a successful ‘vintage’ line of Bell & Ross’ for some sense. However, there’s little about Bell & Ross that could even be considered ‘vintage’ strictly since the brand is still a child of the nineties. But that hasn’t stopped its designers getting inspiration from classic sports replica watches for this collection, with hallmarks like conservative 41mm case dimensions, domed sapphire glass lenses, screw-down crown & pushers, and 100m of water resistance. Despite sharing all those characteristics, as well as the same case and movement with both the Bellytanker and Garde Côtes, the Racing Bird is the first style in the series that feels like a truly new watch, really cool!
I much prefer the Racing Bird chronograph rather than its three-handed counterpart, whose dial feels more than a bit empty and lacking in the character found all over the chronograph variant. Here, the V2-94 feels sporty and fresh, with its milky white dial designed to evoke the fiberglass shell of the plane, contrasted by quick strokes of orange, and a deep blue anodized tachymeter scale and blue dial accents, just like on the Racing Bird’s hull and tail.
Different with the single-seat Racing Bird aircraft which is powered by a V12 Rolls Royce Falcon engine, the V2-94 uses the humble BR-Cal. 301, which is essentially a modified Sellita SW300-1, including an automatic chronograph movement with a 30-minute counter at 9:00, a center-mounted chronograph seconds hand which nicely accented by an orange Racing Bird silhouette counterweight, and a running seconds counter at 3:00. What’s more, the watch’s most divisive feature, an altimeter-inspired date aperture camouflaged just inside the 3:00 register. It’s actually a pretty clever integration, which is easy to get missed at first glance as the numbers look like that they could be part of the counter itself. But then you might notice they’re not concentric with the rest of the register’s circular shape, at which point, if this bothers you, you’re likely to un-see it as long as the Racing Bird is on your wrist. 
As for modern chronographs, comfort is rare for the game, but Bell & Ross has done a wonderful job keeping the proportions of the V2-94 extremely wearable in both height and overall length. Factly, it doesn’t feel too far off in size and wrist presence from the Omega Speedmaster replica watch which is one of the most markedly wearable and iconic chronographs of our time.
Whether or not the color of the Racing Bird is to your taste, it does indeed feel fast and fresh like summer, for those who are looking for something a little more classical, the standard V2-94 models maybe your good choose. Please don’t miss it.
