Bangalore Watch Company Takes Flight With New Apogee

Since 2019, we’ve seen Bangalore Watch Company evolve it’s line up of sport watches from the Mach 1, a pilot watch paying tribute to an iconic Indian Air Force jet fighter, to the Cover Drive, a stylish everyday watch inspired by India’s national sport (Cricket). Bangalore Watch Company is incredibly proud of their nation’s achievements and culture, with their country’s history deeply rooted into the design of every watch in their catalog. This week, Bangalore Watch Company, launches (pun partially intended) it’s newest addition to their catalog, a twin crown, dual time, titanium watch aptly named the Apogee, to celebrate fifty years of Indian space exploration.

Apogee refers to the furthest point of a satellite’s orbit and for Bangalore Watch Company, this signifies how far they have come since their inception in 2017. The Apogee is an intriguing watch for its twin crowns and space-inspired design. Usually, two crowns on a watch is a character trait of a super compressor diver, and although I’m sure the Apogee can hold its own in open water (it’s equipped with 100M WR and a screw down crown), its design personifies space travel and exploration.

As mentioned above, the Apogee is a twin crown watch capable of tracking a second time zone. Both crowns are thick and have graspable grooves for easy crown management. The Apogee’s crown at two o’clock adjusts the internal rotating bezel, while the crown at four o’clock handles the winding and setting of the watch. The face of the internal bezel displays PM hour markers (13 to 24) in a digital-esque typeface, and on the rehaut, directly below each numeral, are the corresponding AM hour markers (1 to 12). I’m keen on watches with a 12 or 24 hour marker bezel for the ease of tracking another time zone (with a bit of math) and without having to worry about an additional GMT hand. The layout of the internal bezel sans a zero marker, triangle marker or lume pip, maintains the overall symmetry of the watch, especially when the bezel is adjusted for another timezone. 

The Apogee dial comes in a matte fumé painted finish. From the press photos it appears to be well executed and the color gradient fading to black towards the bezel builds on the cosmic vibe. I personally gravitate towards their deep green dial, but more on the Apogee dial variations in a bit. The baton style hands and applied hour markers are rhodium plated and filled with C3 Super Lumi-Nova, giving the markers that yellowish-green look during the day and that bright green glow we all know and love, through the night. 

The circular date window neatly tucks in at 6 and is fitted with a black date wheel and white numerals, complementing the portion of the dial where it fades to black. Directly above, a window reads a set of latitude and longitude coordinates which after a quick google search, led me to an island off the east coast of India called Sriharikota, which turns out to be the current satellite vehicle launch site for the Indian Research Space Organization, or IRSO. Wrapping around the outer portion of the dial are white hash marks, offset by a red hash mark every fifth marker, which combined with everything else mentioned a second go, makes for a sufficiently legible dial.

Inspired by the late 60’s and early 70’s, Bangalore Watch Company uses a cushion silhouette and a bead blasted Grade 2 Titanium to encase the Apogee. The case measures 40 mm wide, 44 mm lug to lug and 11 mm tall, which has all the makings of a comfortable fit on wrist, similar to a 70’s Omega Constellation, but more of a modern fit and an extra crown. On the caseback, the Apogee is decorated with a portrayal of the first indigenous satellite launched into orbit in 1975 called the Aryabhatta, The Apogee uses the reliable Swiss Sellita SW200 found in other well-known, rugged fan-favorite watches like the Sinn U1, Yema Superman Heritage and Oris Divers Sixty-Five. 

The Apogee will come in four different dial variations – each named appropriately after their dial  color and space inspiration. The Supernova will come in a deep green dial inspired by, you guessed it, supernova explosions. The Horizon will sport a rich blue dial inspired by views from the lower Earth orbit and the Deep Space, will come in a more classical look, with a matte black dial inspired by the ‘unknown’ of outer space. Bangalore Watch Company takes ‘space-inspired watch’ to a whole other level with the final variation of the Apogee, called the Extraterrestrial, which will come in a dial made out of Muonionalusta; an actual meteorite that can trace its geological period on Earth to over one million years ago and has survived up to four different Ice Ages since then (wild!). 

The Apogee brings it all together with a quick release black leather strap paired with a matching bead blasted titanium buckle signed with the BWC logo. The Apogee is supposed to signify how far the brand has come but I think it’s more of a sign of where the brand is going. The Supernova, Horizon and Deep Space will retail for $925 USD. The Extraterrestrial will be limited to 50 pieces and retail at $2200 USD. The Apogee will be available for pre-order on August 15th, 2021 at 5:00 PM India Standard Time, and saving you from checking the time difference, that would be 7:30 AM Eastern Standard Time at our HQ. Be sure to tune in to the world premiere of the Apogee, which will go live today on the Bangalore Watch Company youtube channel, here. Bangalore Watch Company