May 4, 2014 |
BELL & ROSS: 10 MINUTES
How not to start a conversation with Bell & Ross’s creative director Bruno Belamich over frothy coffees, bearing in mind they’re one of Ten’s favourite purveyors of luxury watches? Well, how about, “Yes, haha, I’m not actually wearing a watch myself – you might have noticed. Never have done, actually. Not really my thing.”
Recovery: “I should explain. I’ve got dyspraxia, so I can’t tell the time. But really I ought to be wearing one of your watches anyway. People can ask me the time, and I can simply respond, ‘I’ve no bloody idea, but look – I’m wearing a Bell & Ross!’” Here I am again, accidentally making another interview all about me. Time to bring it back to Bell & Ross. So, where do you draw the line between technological innovation and gadgetry? “Well wearing a watch should be about utilitarianism – at least in part. That and the simple enjoyment of wearing one, but when you look at that new Samsung watch that works with your phone you have to ask, is this utilitarian? Do I really need this? And who’s going to enjoy wearing it? Some geek maybe?” The Bell & Ross man is obviously no geek. In fact, with the brand’s deep-rooted military and aviation points of inspiration, we’ve always pictured him as a bit of an action man. So is Belamich an action man, too? “Sure, I play with Action Man!” Who get’s to crash test your watches? Is there a funny little man in a lab coat somewhere? “Why? Are you thinking of applying? Actually yes, because when you design for pilots and divers there are certain things the designs need to withstand, so we send them to a laboratory, give them a list of things we’d like them testing for, and it goes right down to things like allergens.” Quite love the idea of destroying beautiful things for a living, actually. What else is important to the brand’s DNA? That sense of vintage, maybe? As in, something beautiful that has been owned before, something with “soul”. “In the 1990s, when we started, everything was a lot more bling bling, but nowadays everyone is in on it, reproducing their old models to give this effect. It’s like in the 1980s, when you’d go to the flea market to find your 501s. We wanted to produce something with this same sense.” Twenty years since their inception Bell & Ross now have their own back catalogue of vintage to draw upon, but what’s new – really new – for the brand? “Actually, we have a collaboration with an English guy who customises Harley Davidsons. The bike will feature a lot of the aviation world that we dabble in.” Amazing! I was named after a motorbike actually – the Vincent – so I’m really excited to see how that turns out. Oh God, here I go again, me, me, me.
By Vincent Levy
