The United States Army Air Corps standardized paint colors to be used on military assets in 1939. The Joint Aircraft Committee’s Subcommittee on Standardization elected to implement the ANA color standard. This color standard created ANA 616, otherwise famous as “Desert Sand.” Like olive drab, this color is used to define military equipment, and for the general public, it is instantly recognizable as a purely tactical and functional color.
Not surprisingly, Bell & Ross chose the color scheme for the dial of the new BR V2-92 sports watch. The company has made a name – and defined an identity – with huge square-cased watches designed after cockpit instrumentation. But the V2-92 is nothing like those – instead, it considerately straddles several traditional fake watch categories. The V2-92 has the look of a field watch, the bezel of a dive watch, and the personality of something straight from Operation Desert Shield.
There’s a certain balance to this watch that’s difficult to come by; the models typically connected with Bell & Ross don’t quite exemplify the same sort of utilitarian design that the V2-92 gets right. It’s a total military mash-up, with design elements borrowed from field watches and dive watches packaged in a thin case.
The waterproof performance of 100 meters makes it closer to the field watch site than the diving watch camp, and the two-way watch ring can not provide the same safety as the one-way watch ring, but I don’t think this replica watch is suitable for diving. It’s a universal watch; The jack of all trades does one thing well at the expense of his everyday watches. I don’t think the target population will lose any points because there’s a one in a million chance that a bezel will be knocked off with a few clicks underwater.
While the enthusiast world might have trouble with date wheels, the Swiss industry as a whole just doesn’t seem to want to let them go. Naturally, there is a date wheel on this model, but it’s integrated so carefully that it shouldn’t bother even the most cranky no-date purist. The date wheel is color-matched, and this isn’t a standard black or white-dialed watch, either. It’s a very specific hue of military beige, and the window is rather small. Besides, these fake Rolex watches strike an admirable balance between typically competing camps.
The V2-92 has the same typographic design as other fake Bell & Ross watches, but it looks softer, and the dome crystals deform and diffuse it, reducing the boldness of some of the more recognizable models in the collection. The bracelet also has a polished central link. It balances the core tool of watch aesthetics, but it’s also something you’ll never find on a watch, actually designed for the modern military.