Bell & Ross AeroGT Concept Proves Watchmakers Can Indeed Work Wonders

Don't get your hopes too high, though, as this car is never going to be built - not even as a one-off or a super-limited edition. Unless some very rich Sultan buys the whole company, gets his hands on the blueprints and then orders somebody to make one, the AeroGT will never be more than a design study.

But what a design study it is. The presentation clip shows the car next to a fighter jet, but the similarities would have been conveyed even without that obvious reference. Besides, Bell & Ross is well-known for the close links between its watches and aviation. The company's creative director, Bruno Belamich, confesses that "every year, in order to create new models, I need new sources of inspiration," and supersonic military airplanes appear to be the one chosen for this year. That's not really a surprise since jets and supercars have been going hand in hand for quite a while. Isn't that right, Lamborghini?

And yet, the Bell & Ross AeroGT Concept might have just taken things one step further. It's not the number of aeronautic elements integrated into the car's design that's remarkable, but how it's done. The AeroGT would hold its head up high alongside any of the recently released hypercars including the Lamborghini Centenario or the Bugatti Chiron, and that's very high praise indeed.

It's got a canopy-like cabin, turbine blade wheels, a pair of exhausts that look like they've got afterburners and enough aerodynamic winglets to take off. But despite this host of apparently exaggerated features, the car is perfectly coherent. And that body-shape when viewed from above? That is both scary and sexy.

The team at Bell & Ross even took the time to imagine what powertrain would best fit the AeroGT, and they came up with a twin-turbo 4.2-liter V8 good for 602 hp. Of course, all this is hypothetical, but you have to admire the down-to-earth numbers they chose when nobody would have held it against them if they went completely bananas with V12 engines and electric motors. As it stands, though, due to extensive use of carbon fiber and aluminum, the supercar only weighs 2,955 lb (1,340 kg), which translates into a top speed of 196 mph (315 km/h) and a 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) sprint time of less than three seconds.

It isn't the first time Bell & Ross used a vehicle to promote a new range of watches - because that's what the AeroGT does - but the previous one only had two wheels. Back in 2014, it came up with a retro-futuristic motorcycle called B-Rocket that featured an extremely aerodynamic body in the classic style of the Bonneville speed record machines.

No doubt that this strategy works - going to a watch show only to come across one of the most beautiful supercars ever penned must do wonders for the brand's awareness levels. However, having the AeroGT next to the new watch designs is also a double-edged sword, as no matter what watch-aficionados say, there's no way you can compare the beauty of a car to that of something that straps on your wrist.