Bangalore Watch Company Earthshine

Mark (the other Watch Brother) has been working hard behind the camera and running our social media. During a recent trip to Bangalore, India, he met with the owners and they showed him their new Apogee collection. Several weeks later, we were lucky enough to have one of their new watches in for a review. Now we can take a proper look at the Bangalore Watch Company Earthshine.

The Earthshine is part of the Apogee collection, which pays homage to India’s remarkable space program, the focus lies on two groundbreaking unmanned moon missions – Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2. While India’s space program commenced in the 1970s, it wasn’t until the 2000s that the nation achieved its lunar aspirations.

Faced with the challenge of lacking the large rockets utilised by other spacefaring nations, India demonstrated remarkable ingenuity. By leveraging Earth’s gravity as a slingshot of sorts to propel its missions towards the moon. This innovative approach underscores India’s commitment to space exploration and its ability to achieve extraordinary feats with resourcefulness and determination.

The original Apogee watches made their debut in 2019, featuring titanium cases. However, Earthshine opts for stainless steel enhanced with a ceramic outer layer of Cerakote. Bangalore Watch Company meticulously developed this unique combination of materials, known as Cerasteel, in 2021. The introduction of Cerasteel reflects the brand’s commitment to innovation and elevates the durability and aesthetic appeal of the Apogee collection, offering enthusiasts a blend of style and substance in their timepieces.

The Case

The blackened steel case is 40mm x 45mm x 12mm and has a grey hue to it. The domed Sapphire crystal has an anti-reflective coating inside allowing for clear legibility. On the side at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock are a pair of knurled crowns. The upper one rotates the inner bezel, whilst the lower, the time and date. As the water resistance is only 100m, they felt no need for a screw in crown.

The case back features an embossed image of the Aryabhatta satellite passing over the Earth. The Aryabhatta satellite is part of the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation, which the Bangalore Watch Company are immensely proud of.

The Dial

The dial has a brown ombre effect that works well with the case colour and has square applied indices that are lumed with Super LumiNova to match the rhodium-plated hands and indices edges. At the outermost edge of the dial is the minute track printed in white with red every 5 minutes. The inner rotating bezel has both a 12 and 24 hour track ,one on each of its two faces. There is a very neat round window at 6 o’clock. This displays the date in white and has a dial-matching brown background.

In the engine room, powering the Earthshine is the Sellita SW200-1. This automatic movement offers a 38-hour power reserve with central hours, minutes and hacking seconds.

This has been my first opportunity to get hands-on with the Bangalore Watch Company Earthshine. I was rather sceptical when Mark told me we had one on the way for a review. Now I’ve had time to wear and enjoy it, it’s actually quite nice. A highlight for me is the cushion case design,  something we don’t see too often from brands. The case design reminds me of many watches from the 1970’s, as the cushion case back then was a celebrated shape.
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I Love A Cushion Case

I need not have been apprehensive, as the Earthshine is something fresh from a country that some believe to be a little behind others. But let’s be honest, the Bangalore Watch Company are making great-looking watches, well on par with many micro brands worldwide and here they are really holding my attention.

I wish the Bangalore Watch Company every success with this Earthshine and look forward to seeing more from them in the future.

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