Revue Thommen Airspeed Instrument RT1920
The Swiss watch manufacturer has just presented its new Revue Thommen Airspeed Instrument RT1920 automatic watch: a new member of its controversial Bell&Ross-styled Airspeed Instrument line of aviator watches.
Created using the same brutal design language, the new Revue Thommen Airspeed Instrument RT1920 differs from the rest of the pack with its black PVD-coated stainless steel case and more upscale-looking hour indices and hands made of some sort of yellow metal (can it be steel plated with titanium nitride or something?)
To make the timekeeper more legible at night, its light grey minute track sports 12 luminous dots. As you can see on the pictures, the dot at 12 hours is triangle-shaped, the ones at 3, 6 and 9 hours are square-shaped, while the rest eight dots are just round.
The broad hour and minute hands, as well as two thirds of the central seconds hand are also coated with white Superluminova.
Just like its source of inspiration (I assume, it was the Bell & Ross BR01 model), the RT1920 sports the same square case with four screws each placed at respective angle and a round bezel with a sapphire glass covering a set of hour, minute and second hands reminding us of aviation instruments.
While the claim to the company’s aviation legacy is quite legitimate (long time ago Revue Thommen indeed used to make money producing cockpit instruments and gauges for the aviation industry,) the result is quite disappointing.
Trying to differentiate their product from the original series by Bell&Ross, Revue Thommen’s designers somehow lost the original point of the watch.
Its main problem is that, with new styling of the dial layout, the watch doesn’t look very much like an instrument gauge. Rather, it feels just like another rip-off of the popular model by B&R available at about half the price of the original.
What is your opinion, anyway?
Photos: Revue Thommen
Revue Thommen Airspeed Instrument RT1920 watch’s specification:
Price range: $1320
Movement: Swiss ETA caliber 2824-2, automatic, 28,800 vph, 25 jewels
Complications: Date
Power reserve: 42 hours
Case material: Stainless steel in PVD
Case size: 44 mm
Case height: N/A
Dial: Navy blue
Water resistance: 50 meters
Strap: Leather with contrast stitching
Crystal: Sapphire
Tags: 44 mm, 50 m, Airspeed, Airspeed Instrument, Automatic, ETA 2824-2, pilot's watch, PVD, Revue Thommen, square
December 19th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Hello i would like to ask how much cost a wach REVUE THOMMEN T44?THAMK YOU IN ADVANCE
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Yes, I agree with you.It is a rip off on B&R but again what inspire B&R designer?
again it is still a rip-off from the cockpit layout, whos’ idea is more original, it just a matter of who manipulated it first?
With such great heritage, it a shame for RT to agree with the designer idea.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:24 pm
I’m a bit fan of Bell & Ross watches and own 3 of them myself including a BR01 instrument watch, but I have to say that the Revue Thommen watch is no rip off or even a homage of the Bell & Ross instrument watch. The Revue Thommen instrument watch is a direct descendant of Thommen instrument clock, which looks nearly identical, using the same number font, dial layout, and even hand shape. The Thommen cockpit insturment clock is in fact still in production as you see for your self on their website: http://www.thommenag.ch/dynasite.cfm?dsmid=103472&action=PrView&ID=22
The Thommen Instrument company has been in business since 1853 and making pilot chronographs since 1916 and has had an avionics division since 1936 and has been making watches and cockpit instruments since before either of the founders of Bell & Ross company were even born. If anything, since Bell & Ross never made cockpit instruments of any kind and has only exited since 1994, The Bell & Ross instrument watches are more likely homages to the Thommen Instruments.
February 2nd, 2012 at 12:39 am
@ John,
Thanks for the comment. I see your point, but I also must note that the instrument you are referring to looks like just about any instrument from a classic (or a Russian, they still use analogue devices in their fighter jets) plane. I don’t see here any special design language, which is unique to Thomenn.