Bill Burke was the pioneer of belly tank racing. He is a legendary Cali hot rodder, who served in South Pacific where he saw tanks attached to aircraft for the first time. Bill Burke, a legendary Cali-hot rodder who served in the South Pacific and saw tanks attached to aircraft for the first time, immediately recognized their slipstream potential for salt flat racing. His first race machine, built after the war from a P-51 Mustang tank, was too small for him, but reached speeds of up to 138mph at El Mirage and Henry Dry Lake. This was rectified by retrofitting an old P-38 Lighting engine, which he used to race extensively. Burke is considered a legend among hot-rod enthusiasts and is an all-American badass.

Belamich started to imagine what type of watch men would be wearing when racing these machines. This gave him his first ideas for the Bellytanker Chronograph. "I wanted a chronograph with some military and aviation code,panerai replica in particular, super high legibility, even when the vibrations are intense, or during racing. At the same time, I wanted it to have the charm of an old military watch soldiers would take into civilian life because they loved them.

Bill Burke, Don Francisco and other hot-rodders pose on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine's August 1949 issue with the original belly tank (Image: Hot Rod Magazine).

"Then maybe one or even two years ago I saw an advertisement for Tommy Hilfiger that showed a man and a woman kissing each other on a flat salt, with a belly racer beside them. "When I saw this image, I thought: "OK, this could really be cool." It is not only a mechanical idea, but also a dream. This is where I start as a designer. When I dreamed about the Hilfiger man, I imagined which watch he would wear to power his belly tank. It's stronger because of the concept."

Dialling it In

BR V2-94 Bellytanker ((c) Revoluton)

The dial is what you will first notice if you are a watch enthusiast. The Bellytanker's dial is one of its finest works. Why? The Bellytanker dial is legible because it uses three levels of information to display the different information. The central dial area displays the hour and minute information. Next is the recessed minute counter and continuous second dial.Rolex GMT-Master II Replica Finally, there is the dramatic stepped seconds track. It's amazing how these three levels are further divided using different colour codes. Black with bold, white markings on the sub-dials. Military khaki is used for the central dial area.