The skull made its first appearance on a Bell & Ross BR01 timepiece in 2009. Following its success, we have seen several other variations of the Skull on the BR01: the BR01 Tourbillon Skull in 2011, the BR01 Skull Bronze in 2015, the BR01 Burning Skull in 2016, and most recently, the BR01 Burning Skull Bronze Limited Edition in 2017. This year, the Maison introduces the BR01 Laughing Skull, which, to me, is the most innovative of their skull watches to date.

The Laughing Skull is Bell & Ross’s first venture into the field of automata (translation: autonomous mechanisms which feature an animated display). This mechanism dates back to 14th Century Europe, which appeared around the same time as mechanical clocks. They often take the form of a Jacquemart, an animated mechanised figure of a person, fitted to a church clock tower to strike the hours on a bell. So how does all this translate into the mechanisms used in the Laughing Skull? Well,  fitted with the BR-CAL.206 skull-shaped calibre, simply turn the crown on the timepiece, and you’d see the skull’s “come to life”, and its jaw opens and closes, as if it’s laughing back at you.

Whether you find this cool, creepy, or creepily cool, this 46mm watch with a brown alligator strap is a Limited Edition of just 500 pieces for MYR43,400.

Images and video courtesy of Bell & Ross