Think of the world’s prestige watch brands and the impression is probably one of old family businesses: generations of watchmakers who, half-blind through fiddling with miniscule cogs and springs, have earned their place in the famed Swiss industry’s hall of fame. Newer companies, often one-man bands, may be found making exquisite one-offs for millionaire collectors. But to have a new international watch company seems, in what is often a closed shop of an industry, to be a contradiction in terms.

Or at least it did. Bell & Ross might not yet carry the kudos of the old-timers, but it has already gone some way to bucking industry trends. Already ranked highly among watch fans both for its products’ design and craftsmanship, worn by the discreet for their stealth wealth understatement, sold in exclusive stores throughout 45 countries and with its own benchmark innovations in mechanical timekeeping, Bell & Ross is sweeping ahead. Indeed, perhaps two facts make this all the more strange. With the likes of Rolex and Tag Heuer, the Cartiers and the Vacherons racking up centuries of history between them, Bell & Ross, the new pretender, is just coming up to its tenth birthday. More striking still is that its founder and CEO is still only 38. Carlos Rosillo has, as it were, time on his hands.

“I’ve always been obsessed with watches,” says Rosillo, ready to give you a whole new take on your humble wrist companion. “To me they’re things with so many elements: the design and the technical aspects, even the philosophy. Watches are about your relationship with time, the happy and the sad moments in your life. I remember the watch I was wearing when I got married, the one when I launched the company… All this in such a small object. It’s incredible.”

For Bell & Ross to have entered such a rarefied world, in which movements (the mechanics that make a wind-up or automatic watch keep time) are feted like miniature works of art, the annual watch show in Basel displays its timepieces in a gallery setting and being able to trace the MD’s watch-making lineage back to the turn of the century – to old great-grandfather time – adds to the company prestige, is all to its credit. But this is an old-fashioned story of pursuing a dream. Rosillo (of the “Ross” in the brand name) studied business at a French university, and within four years of leaving had joined up with design manager Bruno Belamich (of the “Bell”) to launch the company. He makes it sound simple.

“It was just a passion,” says Rosillo, a man with 30 classics in his own watch collection. “And you can’t really resist that. And although it was risky, now I’m very glad that I didn’t. Now we even like to think that, while heritage is held in high esteem by much of the watch industry for some reason, a lack of heritage has actually been an advantage for us. Heritage can be a burden, especially if you have a back catalogue with a few crap designs. It can create an approach you feel compelled to follow. We’ve been free to start with a clean product and a clean operation.”

Indeed, more than simply get its foot in the door, Bell & Ross has established an enviable position in the watch world. Young, it has still been able to give its collections a coherent, signature style of unadorned, almost minimalist, good looks: stripped down, precise, functional and, as it says on the box, fully water-resistant. If other brands often make watches for posing in – with busy dials or littered with diamonds – Bell & Ross have more form-follows- function intentions. They just want their watches to tell the time most efficiently. They have exceptionally clear, large dials – beefy size something other brands have embraced recently more as a trend than out of functionality – “and,” Rosillo adds, “though at these prices you probably don’t buy a watch to tell the time, we think it’s a little strange if you can’t when you want to.”
He likes to joke that the size of Bell & Ross watches has given the brand a particular popularity among the 60 to 80-year-old bracket. Perhaps also among those other half-blind watchmakers. Other fans include Bill Clinton and King Juan Carlos of Spain (who has just ordered a job lot for the crew of the royal yacht), both said to be watch aficionados, Rosillo proudly notes, rather than simply flagrant big-spenders (Elton John also has dozens of Bell & Ross pieces).

SUCH WAS ITS GROWING REPUTATION AMONG ADVENTUROUS TYPES –THE KIND WHOSE LIFE MIGHT DEPEND ON THE SECOND HAND NOT BEING OBSCURED BY A PRETTY GEMSTONE – THAT TWO YEARS LATER BELL & ROSS WAS ASKED BY THE FRENCH SECURITY SERVICE TO CREATE THE TYPE DEMINEUR FOR ITS BOMB DISPOSAL TEAMS.

“We’re certainly not about being in fashion,” Rosillo adds. “Fashion watches are in and out in six months. Like Jeeps in the car world, technical watches last in terms of looks as well as make. For us it’s all about not having superfluous detail. There’s nothing on these watches that is useless. You might say there’s not much colour to them, for instance. But until we find that colour has a real function, there won’t be.”
In fact, they have found a function for colour beyond prettifying: Bell & Ross’ Diver TE watch has a capsule that shows the amount of moisture absorbed by the intensity of its shade. Such a rigorous design philosophy – one which seems to be finding increasing popularity among consumers overwhelmed by the clutter of excessive choice, not just in watches but in clothes, cars, domestic appliances – stems from the company’s origins; in 1992 it began by collaborating with Sinn, an instrument panel manufacturer, to design clocks for the aeronautic and space industries, its products finding a warm reception from professionals who depended on clear time-keeping: astronauts, pilots and divers. Two years later Bell & Ross decided there was room to turn this into a watch business; it began by launching its Space 1, a re-edition of the first automatic chronograph worn in space (in 1983 by the German astronaut Reinhart Furrer on SpaceLab).

Such was its growing reputation among adventurous types – the kind whose life might depend on the second hand not being obscured by a pretty gemstone – that two years later Bell & Ross was asked by the French Security Service to create the Type Demineur for its bomb disposal teams. With its non- and anti- magnetic case (a magnetic one might, rather inconveniently, set the bomb off), this gave Bell & Ross some expertise in making exceptionally good value watches – government agencies being keen not to spend too much on their personnel.

“We were lucky to get the balance right between business, watch-making and design. But most don’t, so there are almost no new watch brands. It’s just like the car industry that way. But then the watch industry is also a small, closed world. It doesn’t really welcome new brands,” explains Rosillo. “All the big important brands launched back when you could create a collaboration between rare skills: Patek met Philippe, Baume met Mercier.”

Invention, however, seems to have outgunned all objections. From Bell & Ross’ hi-tech manufacturing plant in La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland, and its meagre 35 staff, has come the first watch with a jumping hour and power reserve (a complex technical milestone for which horolophiles go crazy). The company also created a telescopic crown (or “winder”), which screws down into the watchcase, leaving its curves smooth and less likely to catch on anything – like the lining of your space suit. Most recently, it has also made the Hydro Challenger diving watch, 100% waterproof thanks to a special oil-based liquid. This also prevents refraction, allowing it to be read accurately – so you don’t think you have 50 minutes of air in your tank when you only have five – at any angle underwater. The Hydromax has the world record for a deep-sea watch: 11,100m.

It is telling that even when Bell & Ross does launch a diamond watch, the diamond is not quite as one might imagine. Its forthcoming model is called the Mystery Diamond, the first watch for women, launching at the end of the year, but, for the moment, under wraps. “We know women love diamonds, but we’re not making a watch that uses a diamond for decoration,” adds Rosillo, teasingly. “Diamonds just wouldn’t be us. We didn’t want to launch women’s watches if it meant losing our philosophy, so here a diamond is essentially functional. But that’s all I can say…”

Certainly, for all that rigorous adherence to the principals of use and ergonomics might prove a straightjacket for designers, Bell & Ross seems to be overcoming the demands of staying within its self-imposed boundaries, while offering its admirers something new. Rosillo promises a flow of new ideas to old watch-making, which may prove essential for survival in a hostile world.

“The launch of Bell & Ross was difficult for the industry to understand, I think,” Rosillo says. “What were we about? Where had we come from? But we managed to capture the interest of people who really love watches. We’re often thought of as being much older than we are. And then you look at companies that have been around for decades and you wonder where they’re going. I never imagined that in ten years we’d be where we are, up alongside them. But I’m pleased we are.”

FIVE THINGS ROSILLO WISHED HE HAD KNOWN:
1. “Choose your partners carefully. If you’re not 100% sure about working with them, just don’t do it. You have to be absolutely sure.”
2. “Don’t try to go too fast, because you’ll pay for it eventually. It’s too easy to get greedy and grab at immediate profits, or to make simple sales that might not be right for the company.”
3. “Always be careful who you do sales with. Not everyone is right for your brand and your brand isn’t right for everyone.”
4. “Never compromise on the product or the brand, the two key elements to any business. Lose one and you lose the other.”
5. “Respect your team – because the human adventure is as important as the company adventure and you’re only ever as weak as the weakest part of your business.”