Bell & Ross founder and CEO Carlos Rosillo on why ‘balance’ is the key to design, business and life
SINGAPORE (Dec 17): One could be forgiven for mistaking Carlos Rosillo for a creative director. With his safari-style khaki jacket and matching pants, a newsboy cap and round black-rimmed spectacles as well as greying moustache and beard, Rosillo looks like an artist.
As one-half of the French brand of Swiss-made watches Bell & Ross, Rosillo is in fact the “suit” of the business, taking on the CEO role, while co-founder Bruno Belamich is the creative designer. The childhood friends established the brand in 1992. It is best known for its military-inspired watches and long-standing partnerships with elite units of the Armed Forces such as the French Air Force, which uses Bell & Ross watches because of its rigorous standards of precision.
“My partner Bell is alive. Bell and Ross are alive,” announces Rosillo, revealing a keen sense of humour that is both refreshing and charming. He is alluding to the fact that the eponymous founders of most Swiss horological heavy-weights were buried centuries ago.
The partnership dynamic between Rosillo and Belamich is an intriguing one, in which the strengths of each man are sometimes more pertinent to the other’s portfolio.
“My father was an artist. At the back of my mind, I have creativity,” says Rosillo, who holds an MBA. Belamich, meanwhile, is “very analytical for a designer”.
“The funny thing is that although Mr Bell is the creative one, I trust him in business decisions, because he has good common sense. And he trusts my artistic sensibility, so I will help him make artistic decisions,” explains Rosillo. “He explores so many options that sometimes I have to say, ‘Mr Bell, trust in yourself. Don’t explore.’ Because in the end, we still choose his first proposition. This is how he creates: by exploring all the options [and eventually returning] to his first intuition.”
Collaborations and millennials
This mutual trust and flexibility between the two men provides the foundation for a lasting partnership that clearly works.
And it enables creativity to flourish, as Belamich and team are given free rein to create. This has given rise to several inspired collaborations, including the limited-edition timepiece with Japanese streetwear label A Bathing Ape, better known as BAPE. Just 125 watches — iterations of Bell & Ross’s iconic BR-03 square case — were produced for BAPE’s XXV Anniversary Collection.
Were the camouflage-inspired pieces part of a strategic bid to lure the millennials? “It was as strategic as our collaboration with the military,” Rosillo says, referring to the brand’s strong association with military personnel, astronauts, armed police and special law enforcement officers, as well as submariners and even bomb disposal divers. All these people use Bell & Ross timekeeping instruments in their line of work.
“When it makes sense, you need to do it. If it doesn’t, don’t do it. We don’t do a collaboration to seduce millennials. We only establish a collaboration if it makes sense and excites us,” Rosillo clarifies. “Without BAPE, we wouldn’t have done a product like this. They have a sharp point of view and came with ideas that made sense. We are both cool brands with cool cultures: It’s about a military-inspired lifestyle. When everything makes sense, you don’t have to compromise on your DNA.”
That said, Rosillo is happy that the collaboration pushed Bell & Ross to the limits of its brand identity. “Bell & Ross is a prestigious brand, but we said, ‘Don’t be shy. Go with your direction, but to the limit.’ And I think the BAPE watches are fantastic. We actually wanted the whole strap to be in a camouflage pattern, but they were shy.”
It helps that the 53-year-old has two young sons aged 10 and 12 to help him maintain a youthful perspective. “The watch industry is run by a lot of people who are old, like me. That is why I’m safe — my kids make me [feel] young. If you are too old, you don’t understand the marketing needed to reach millennials. But if your kids are millennials, you get the idea of what millennials are and want,” he expounds.
He is quick to state, though, that Bell & Ross is not a brand that blindly follows trends. “If I compromise because of a trend, there will be a distortion and somebody will always be cheated — whether it is the end-user, dealer or brand. If your aspiration doesn’t correspond with your reality, [you lose integrity]. Some brands go into streetwear and compromise for commercial reasons. Some people will get it, some people won’t. But if you achieve all that because it was the right decision, as it made sense, you just have to explain [your intention] with sincerity and authenticity.
“Sometimes, you can be misunderstood. Some people may say [the motive is] greed and to earn more money. To sell 125 watches for the [BAPE] 25th anniversary, do we need to do that business-wise?” he asks rhetorically, addressing detractors serenely with a smile.