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Journalism of Courage
After facing flak for owning a limited edition Rafale wristwatch which reportedly costs lakhs, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on December 18 claimed that the timepiece is made from the same material as the Rafale fighter jet, 36 of which India has purchased from France, and that he had chosen to wear the watch out of patriotism.
“I wear this because I’m a patriot, and this watch is very important to me. Since I can’t fly a Rafale jet, I’ll wear this watch until the day I die,” he said.
On December 17, Tamil Nadu Minister and DMK leader V Senthilbalaji posted a thread on Twitter asking how Annamalai, who claimed to own only four goats and cows, was able to afford such an expensive watch.
What is the Rafale watch?
The watch that Annamalai seems to own is the French watchmaker Bell & Ross’s BR 03 Rafale. Introduced in 2015, the timepiece has been crafted in collaboration with Dassault Aviation, which also builds the Rafale fighter jets.
According to the website of Bell & Ross, the watch is a limited edition of 500 units. At the time of its launch, the timepiece was priced at 5,200 euros, which roughly translates to Rs 4.57 lakh as of today.
The Rafale watch is a chronograph, meaning apart from displaying the time, it can also act as a stopwatch. Before the advent of the digital era, chronographs were widely used for precision timekeeping and speed or distance computations.
Chronographs were also worn by pilots, as they helped them with speed and distance calculations. Although they have been largely replaced by far superior gadgets and instruments, chronograph watches still enjoy immense popularity among watch enthusiasts for aesthetic purposes.
What are the specifications of the Rafale watch?
The Bell & Ross BR 03 Rafale is made from ceramic, which is known for being lightweight and offering hypoallergenic properties, along with high resistance against heat.
It’s because of these advantages of ceramic that in recent years it has been extensively used not only in the watch industry but also in the aviation sector, where the material is used to build supersonic aircraft, rockets, and fuel nozzles.
Measuring 42 mm in width, the Rafale watch takes its design cues from the design of the aircraft. While its case is presented in a stealth-like matte black colour which is a reference to the anti-reflective tints of instrument panels in aeroplane cockpits, the dial has the same matt grey hue as the Rafale jet.
The display also consists of two sub-dials — at the nine o’clock position there is the 30-minute counter and at the three o’clock position is the small seconds counter that comprises a silhouette of the Rafale jet. The typography of the numerals on the dial mirrors the registration numbers on the jet’s fuselage.
The Bell & Ross BR 03 Rafale is powered by an automatic movement called BR-CAL.301. The power reserve — the length of time a mechanical watch will run when it’s fully wound — of the watch is 42 hours. The Rafale watch is worn on the wrist with the help of a black-coloured rubber strap, and it is water-resistant up to a depth of 100 metres.
