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- Bell & Ross has unveiled the BR-03 Space Mission, a limited-edition watch that uses a miniature spacecraft to indicate the minutes and the Moon to display the hours.
- The 41mm black ceramic watch features a star-filled aventurine dial and a BR-CAL.325 automatic movement with a 54-hour power reserve.
- Limited to 999 pieces worldwide, the BR-03 Space Mission is priced at AUD $7,800 in Australia.
Space… the final frontier, at least for this Bell & Ross pilot’s watch. The brand is taking its cockpit-inspired timepiece into the great beyond. After last year’s BR-03 Astro (featured in The Wind Up), the Swiss watchmaker is back with the BR-03 Space Mission, swapping the Earth-orbiting satellite for a miniature spaceship that flies around the dial. I can already hear Neil deGrasse Tyson narrating.
The spaceship is based on the Vortex, a reusable orbital-vehicle concept developed by Dassault Aviation, offering a glimpse of what space travel could become. But while we wait for a spaceship we can actually climb aboard, the Vortex has another job on your wrist: circling the dial every hour to mark the minutes. It’s not exactly the most legible watch this side of the galaxy, but as Tyson puts it: “the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you”.
It reminds me of A perfectly useless afternoon by Kristof Devos from one of the best British watch brands, Mr Jones Watches. On that watch, someone’s lounging in a swimming pool while a little rubber duck floats around to tell the time. It was a unique way to do so when it launched back in July 2019. Now Bell & Ross is making a bigger splash in the unique dial space, swapping the swimming pool for zero gravity, and the rubber duck for a futuristic spaceplane. Space is awesome.
1/6How Does the BR-03 Space Mission Tell Time?
For what is essentially a scene from a science-fiction film across the dial, reading the time is surprisingly straightforward. A transparent rotating disc carries an illustration of Earth and the Moon, completing one revolution every 12 hours. The Moon’s position indicates the hours, while the nose of the Vortex acts as the minute hand, circling the dial every 60 minutes.
It’s an ever-so-slightly altered arrangement from the 2025 BR-03 Astro, which used a tiny satellite to indicate seconds, the Moon for minutes and Mars for hours. This time, Mars is reduced to a small red dot (take that, Martians), while the Vortex holds centre stage against a black aventurine glass dial scattered with stars.
And before you start planning your own trip into orbit, the Vortex on the watch isn’t an operational spaceship. At least not yet. Dassault Aviation developed it as a concept for a reusable vehicle that could travel between Earth and orbital platforms, taking off and landing on a runway like an aircraft. Just don’t expect orbital space vehicles like the Vortex to replace conventional aircraft flying international long-haul flights such as those planned for Project Sunrise. At least we still have the watch. That is, if you can get one of the just 999 being made.
1/7Bell & Ross BR-03 Space Mission – Key Specs
- Reference: BR03A-SPM-CE/SRB
- Case: 41mm micro-blasted black ceramic
- Thickness: 10.60mm
- Movement: Automatic BR-CAL.325
- Power reserve: 54 hours
- Crystal: Anti-reflective sapphire
- Water resistance: 100 metres
- Straps: Black rubber and additional black synthetic fabric
- Availability: Delivery mid-November
- Price: AUD $7,800
At AUD$7,800, the Bell & Ross BR-03 Space Mission is hardly an impulse buy. As a limited-edition ceramic Swiss watch with such an unusual dial, it’s a steal. But let’s face it: nobody’s buying the Space Mission because it makes telling the time easier. They’re buying it because there’s a tiny Vortex flying around their wrist every hour of the day.
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