By no means am I a watch nerd. I know a bunch of those folks. I'm friends with a bunch of those folks. They're nice people. And to each their own fun hobbies. But I do like watches as a thing. Mostly, I like my Garmin fenix 8 Pro, as it has an SOS feature that's super handy for my wanted and chosen adventures. And it tracks a bunch of other things I do keep track of.
It's also quite pricey, ringing in at $2,000. That's to say, I familiar with how expensive watches are and have become in recent decades. And I know that's sort of at the low end of pricey spectrum when you start getting into the dark recesses of horology.
So I knew when I laid my eyes on Bell & Ross' new BR-X3 Night Vision, it was going to be an expensive thing. The brand isn't known for anything else. But the flash of the glow-in-the-dark camo-etched pilot's watch drew me in. And then I clicked the "see price" button and nearly spit out my morning coffee, because this watch costs about the same as Ducati's Panigale V2.
But that made me think. If money wasn't an option, would you rather have the watch or the Ducati?
The BR-X3 is what's known in the watch circles as a Big Pilot's watch, and features a 41 mm wide, 13.3 mm thick, Grade 2 titanium case with a "black DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) micro-blasted finish and carbon fibre inlaid with luminescent resin." The crown is also Grade 2 titanium with a DLC finish, and the back is a black-tinted sapphire case. The movement is a Calibre BR-CAL.323. Manufacture. automatic that's good for 70 hours. And the strap is rubber, while the whole thing can head into the depths with a water-resistance rating of 100 meters.
But what drew me in, again, was that glow-in-the-dark etching.
According to the brand, "The BR-X3 Night Vision case combines LUM-CAMO – a high-tech composite material merging carbon fiber with luminescent resin – with black PVD-coated titanium and photoluminescent green rubber cylinders, delivering exceptional durability and outstanding legibility, even in total darkness. Its skeletonized dial, highlighted by a green X and protected by a tinted sapphire crystal, reveals the automatic movement and draws inspiration from aeronautical head-up displays, ensuring instant readability day or night." TL:DR, this design glows and absolutely slaps.
All that high-tech movement and case-work, however, come at a steep-ass price. How much? How's $14,100 sound? If that sounds very close to Ducati current generation Panigale V2, which retails for $16,495, you'd be correct. But while you can't bring your Ducati into a fancy function like you would your Bell & Ross BR-X3, you can do wheelies with it, and smoke your local track days.
Yet, as I've written throughout the years, I've noticed that folks who like vehicles and the intricacy of those vehicles are also keen on watches. So the question becomes, which would you rather have? The watch or the motorcycle? I know which I'd pick...
