Round-UpPatriotic Fever: Four Exquisite India-Edition Swiss Watches
Four India Edition Swiss watches celebrate the nation’s architectural, cultural and even scientific markers in their horological storytelling
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Designing and naming watches after cities or countries is usually perceived as the manufacturers’ attempt to strengthen their presence in various international regions. For western brands exoticising the east is quite common. In the case of India, the reliance is on historical symbols such as the Taj Mahal, and often outdated motifs of elephants, snake charmers, and so on. However, even stereotypical markers, when replicated tastefully, can become a celebratory tribute to a nation’s rich past and evolved futures. In the spirit of India’s upcoming 77th Independence Day, listed below are India edition Swiss watches that have used the country’s architectural, cultural and even scientific markers in their horological storytelling.
Jacob & Co Epic X India Edition In Gold Or Titanium
The Astronomia Art India timepiece was the first iteration from Jacob & Co to showcase 3D handcrafted miniatures of the architectural wonders of the Taj Mahal, Lotus Temple, India Gate and Qutub Minar, on a shimmery aventurine dial. Jump to 2023. The Epic X line revisits this India-centric theme with a 22-piece limited-run; 11 iterations in titanium, followed by another 11 in 18-karat rose gold. Both editions look timeless. The rose gold watch looks exquisite like heirloom jewellery, while the titanium model exudes old-world charm of a classic black-and-white movie.
The 44mm Epic X India Edition has Jacob & Co engraved on the left vertical bridge, and in a neat row, on the right one, are four architectural wonders chosen to structurally represent India. From the left, the lineup on the Epic X India Edition starts with the India Gate that honours 84,000 soldiers martyred in wars between 1914 to 1921. Next, is the Taj Mahal, a tomb in pure white marble, symbolic of the love between Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The third monument is the Gateway Of India, the 20th-century arch on the Arabian Sea that commemorates the arrival of the British monarch King-Emperor George V during his visit to India in 1911. And last, the Qutub Minar, the world’s tallest minaret built from bricks.
Made from 158 parts, the in-house JCAM02 calibre looks dashing, mixing textures of clous de Paris guilloche, perlage, vertical graining, and sandblasted finishing. The manual-winding movement beats at 28,800vph and offers 48-hour power reserve. Visible through the openworked caseback are the balance spring and wheels, mainspring barrel with a ‘sliding clamp system’, 21 jewels and balance screws. Water-resistant to 100m, the case has antireflective sapphire crystal for the glass and caseback. The ‘X’ in Epic X is magnified through the X-shaped lugs that act as connectors, bridging the brushed and satin-polished bezel with the black rubber straps, perforated in honeycomb patterns, and fitted with a tongue buckle.
Bovet Orbis Mundi India Edition
The reference to India on the world-timer Bovet Orbis Mundi India Edition, is but a sliver—her capital city, New Delhi, featured among the world’s cities representing time zones—on its off-centred dial at 12 o’clock. Yet the iteration is a vital marker of the brand’s strong association to India. The 42mm Fleurier case in 18-karat red gold is a good contrast for the cobalt blue dial with a guilloche pattern over which the off-centred dial is displayed.
A crown topped with a cabochon sapphire, enclosed within a protector, alias the ‘Bovet bow’ above 12 o’clock, controls the world-timer that accounts for the +/- 0.5-hour difference—not often featured in word-time watches. The open-worked caseback showcases the in-house 15BM01HU calibre, which operates the semicircular sub-dials of a three-arm rotating seconds hand at six o’clock and the indicator of the seven-day power reserve at three o’clock. A matching blue alligator leather strap completes the look.
Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Hometown Edition
It’s heartening to see the city of Mumbai celebrated in a wristwatch along with iterations of several other global cities, including Beijing, London, New York, and Tokyo. These chronograph models are part of the Heritage Bicompax Annual Hometown Edition of global cities ‘adopted’ by Carl F. Bucherer. Don’t be fooled by the unassuming chronograph dial, as the true beauty of the timepiece is the caseback. An engraved sapphire crystal showcases the Gateway of India and it’s staggered reflection in the Arabian Sea. Encircling this pictorial depiction is the name ‘Mumbai’ and the watch number.
Like the other 15 Hometown models, the 88-piece limited-run bottle green iteration themed on Mumbai has a silvery centre progressively transitioning into darker tones towards the dial’s periphery. Other timekeeping features on the dial include contrasting black seconds and chronograph sub-dials, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with Super-LumiNova applied on them, a small seconds hand, a big date aperture, a month window sitting snugly between four and five o’clock, and a tachymeter scale around all of it.
Enclosing the dial is a 41mm brushed and polished stainless steel case with rectangular chronograph pushers. The CFB 1972 automatic calibre runs the watch, beating at 28,800vph, offering a 42-hour power reserve. Instead of five times a year, the user only needs to manually adjust the date once a year, when February ends, as the watch automatically keeps track of 30 or 31 days. The captivating 3D-look engraving on the caseback’s sapphire crystal, which is devoted to each watch’s distinct hometown, is what makes each version so unique. The timepieces come attached with a two-tone perforated calfskin leather strap, with stitches matching the dial colour, quick-release spring bars and a steel folding pin-buckle.
Louis Moinet Only India Edition
American philosopher Henry Thoreau had said, “New ideas come into the world, somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.” To have a tiny bit of meteorite on your dial, as with the 47mm Louis Moinet Only India watch, then, is a permanent blessing. Nestled within a golden ring shaped like an Indian Madagascar periwinkle, is a fragment of the Martian meteorite Shergotty that fell in Sherghati near Bihar, on August 25, 1865. Unlike the rest of the dial and case, it is the only feature that does not outrightly appear Indian. Yet, its strategic placement at 12 o’clock, like an Indian bindi or teeka, is telling.
Moving to the rest of the watch, the iridescent underlying layer of the dial is from the feather of India’s national bird, the peacock—reminding us of the Hindu god Krishna and the ‘peacock throne’ by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Even the watch hands allude to the beautiful bird. Placed over this dial is a hand-engraved applique of the Ashoka chakra; a fan-shaped formation of 20 spokes, micro-painted in vivid hues. Equally ornate is the gold case, engraved with Indian floral and geometric motifs. The lugs continue with the Ashoka chakra’s theme, with a lion’s foot—reminiscent to the Lion Capital of Ashoka, Sarnath—on miniature wheels of dharma accentuated with a ruby.
The watch runs on the calibe LM-35, which won the International Chronometry Competition for overcoming 150 impacts it was subjected to for four months. This movement beats at 21,600vph, offers 72-hour power reserve, and controls the rotating tourbillon at six o’clock, and the one-minute rotation cycle of the balance spring, anchor, and anchor wheel. A black alligator leather strap with folding clasp completes the look.
Shop The Story
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Jacob & Co. Epic X
EX110.43.AC.AA.ABRUA
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Carl F. Bucherer Heritage
00.10803.08.92.89
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Bovet Fleurier
NTHU023
