Bertolucci Bella Costa Chronograph Watch

This new watch is a weird dive-style watch, but I still like it. Not sure why. I consider it more artistic that anything else. An playful designer homage to the diver - with interesting luxury watch elements applied. Almost all Bertolucci watches I see describe themselves as being "Mediterranean inspired." They use this term so often I am not necessarily sure what it means anymore. The most interesting part of the 41mm wide steel case is the asymmetric bezel and inner flange. They compliment each other so that the watch dial itself is perfectly centered, but they are purely artistic - likely making the bezel non-rotatable. Also, the case is water resistant to 50 meters only, so this is certainly only a "dive-style" watch. The pieces comes in an orange and textured white dial, as well as a black version with diamonds. Interesting how the black version with diamonds actually looks more feminine than the orange version.

An interesting design feature is the "peninsula" where the date window is located that is in steel with Cotes de Geneve striped polished applied. One area that Bertolucci did very well is with all of the lovely lines on the case. Like it or not, you can't deny that Bertolucci designers know elegance - even if it is weird sometimes. Check out the curves on the lugs, the rounded crown and pushers, and the graceful shape of the watch hands. Inside the watch is a Swiss ETA quartz G10.711 chronograph movement. Strap is silicone and grooved for style. The Bella Costa watches aren't bad if you like the avant garde looks and the upbeat character of the designs. Serious sport or diver watches they are not though. Hopefully the quartz movement, steel case, and silicone strap mean that the Bella Costa watch (at least the non diamond version) won't be too expensive.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.