Bell & Ross Cocktail at Les Invalides

The traditional cocktail organized by Bell&Ross after the Summer  took place at the Invalides the 4th of October inside a very prestigious location: the Salon d'Honneur. Like the previous year, this cocktail was preceded by a ceremony since Bruno Belamich has just become, one year after Carlos Rosillo, chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, a very high decoration for a civilian in France.

Ross (Rosillo) is nothing without Bell (Belamich) and the fact that both of them got this decoration is another proof of this statement.

2013 is also a special year for the brand because it released watches in partnership with Dassault Aviation to celebate the 50th anniversary of the Falcon. It is the reason why during the event 2 movies were displayed. One was dedicated to a short presentation of the Baselworld Fair from the Bell&Ross perspective, the other explained the relationships between Dassault Aviation and Bell&Ross.

Carlos Rosillo did a moving speech and I could feel at his voice that he was very happy for his friend and partner in the Bell&Ross adventure, maybe even more when he received his own decoration the year before.

The event was also the opportunity of the brand fans to meet with several French journalists without forgetting a lot of representative of the French Army.

I propose you to browse several pictures I took during the event and I will come back with more details to the watches and more specifically to the 2013 Bell&Ross collection later.

I'm approaching the Invalides, one of the most famous monuments in Paris:

We are not far from the Eiffel Tower, very close to the Seine:

The illuminated windows of the Salon:

The impressive courtyard of the Invalides:

The Salon d'Honneur seen from the courtyard:

A few steps later...

Inside the Salon d'Honneur. The pictures were not taken at the beginning of the event because the place was much crowded when the cocktail started!


The watches displays were not set up at the same locations than the previous years:



A "small" Emperor, Napoleon III:


And a great King, Louis XIV:


It is always a pleasure for me to come back to this place every year. If I remember well, it is the third year in the row that Bell&Ross organizes its cocktail at the Invalides, a way to remember the close connection between the brand and the French Army:





As usual, the watches were not merely put inside the displays but the mise-en-scene highlighted their features and the context behind their creations:

Some watches of the Heritage collection:

The Tourbillon display:

The power reserve and torque indicators are hints to recognize the provider of the Tourbillon movements. They were developped by BNB several years ago.

The BR126 Blackbird:

The BR03-51 GMT Carbon:

The whole collection of the BR01 Flight Instruments:

One of the watches dedicated to specific parterships (this one with the Italian Air Force if I remember well for the 30 years celebration of the Tornado):

The gathering of the Falcon watches:

  This really strange Tourbillon was unveiled this year:

And the watch on my wrist (shot in Basel):


The Jumping Hours watches. If you remember well, this complication has been present for a very long time in the Bell&Ross catalogue since a watch whose movement was developped by Vincent Calabrese made its appearance more or less 10 years ago (I don't remember the exact date).



The pocket watches with a 5mn repeater mechanism coming from Dubois Depraz:

The WW1 Argentium which can be considered as the dress watches of the collection:

Several views of the courtyard from the Salon d'Honneur... with Napoleon on the background:

Another room was accessible by the guests:

And a photographer was doing a shooting session! The guests could wear some crew outfits to plunge in the Falcon atmosphere!

Bruno Belamich (L) and Carlos Rosillo (R) can be proud of the long and successful path they have crossed together.

I would like to thank a lot Bell&Ross for the invitation and for the perfect organization of this event.

Fx


This message has been edited by foversta on 2013-10-06 03:28:39