There couldn’t have been a better day for Bangalore Watch Company to launch its latest timepiece. On the 77th anniversary of India’s Independence, the brand has unveiled a limited edition watch, the MACH 1 Admiral, to its MACH 1 line. And it marks many firsts.
The foremost and the most significant of those is the fact that the dial of the watch is made from the metal recovered from the INS Vikrant R11 – the Indian Navy’s first aircraft carrier that was decommissioned in 2014. The INS Vikrant R11 is an important part of Indian Naval history. The first aircraft carrier that any Asian country had at the time, it played a key role in the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and Sea Harrier fighter jets executed vertical take-off and landing from it in 1984. It served the Indian Navy between 1961 and 1997 and participated in multiple combat operations. The INS Vikrant R11 was finally decommissioned in January 1997 and was preserved as a museum ship in Naval Docks in Mumbai until 2012. In January 2014, it was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November 2014.
Specifically, the MACH 1 Admiral's dial metal is made from the anchor chain of the warship. “Watch dials are usually made of brass. When we tested the metal recovered from the anchor chain of the INS Vikrant R11, we learned that it was hardened steel. It was a challenging process to cut, machine, and produce dials that met the tolerances required for the watch. Most critical operations involved punching holes for the logo index, the date window at 6H, and the centre hole for the handset. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to achieve through a challenging 10-month production process for the dials alone.” said Nirupesh Joshi, co-founder Bangalore Watch Company.
The dial is light grey, and features an artwork of the Starboard side view of the INS Vikrant R11. The Arabic hour markers feature a light blue marker beside them that recall the high seas, as does the tip of the arrow-shaped seconds hand. The date window rests at 6 o’clock and the indexes and hands have C3 Grade-A Super-Lumi-Nova®. On the closed caseback is an artwork of an anchor chain that is reminiscent of the one from the carrier. The 40mm case is made from 316L surgical-grade steel and has a matte black PVD coating. It is topped by a flat sapphire crystal, which boasts an anti-reflective coating. The watch has a water resistance of 100 metres and features leather straps.
In another first, Bangalore Watch Company has powered the MACH 1 Admiral with a La Joux-Perret G100 automatic movement, which has a power reserve of 68 hours (it has been seen in anOrdain’s Model 1 and Furlan Marri’s Salmon, White and Grey Sector). This is a departure from the Sellita SW200-1 movement that the brand has used thus far. Communication by the brand states that “this signals Bangalore Watch Company’s commitment to seek new improvements to their watches.”
And what can only be called a triple whammy, the watch will be the first one from Bangalore Watch Company being offered with an NFT. Created in partnership with the Mumbai-based Hefty.Art, the non-fungible token can be used to trace and validate the ownership of these watches in blockchain. “For the past few years, we have been offering Limited Edition watches that contain special materials like meteorites, or other military assets. Validating the authenticity and provenance of these watches is important given the rarity of the materials being used. Working with Hefty Art Inc, we are now able to offer every owner of a MACH 1 Admiral the opportunity to mint a Utility NFT that is digitally tied to their watch. This makes their watch unique and provides an irreproducible digital identity for their watch that lives permanently in the blockchain.” said Mercy Amalraj, Co-founder and Head of Ownership Experience, Bangalore Watch Company.
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The MACH 1 Admiral joins the MACH 1 line, which is entirely inspired by aviation. Past models include Synchro, inspired by the Indian formation aerobatics team; Officer’s Blue, inspired by the uniform of Indian Air Force officers; and the MACH 1X whose dial is made of military-grade-anodized aluminium recovered from a decommissioned MiG 21 fighter plane. “When we had the opportunity to create watches from steel recovered from the decommissioned INS Vikrant Aircraft Carrier, we were excited about being able to extend MACH 1’s story to India’s Naval Aviation” says Amalraj.
The MACH 1 Admiral is a limited edition of 70 watches and can be reserved through the brand’s website www.bangalorewatchco.in starting today.
Images: Bangalore Watch Company
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