The Cricket Ball at 12 O'clock

Have you ever noticed how a cricket ball changes across formats? It’s easy to miss from the stands or on television, but if you’ve followed the game closely, you’ll know that the colour of the ball shifts with how cricket is played.  

If you look closely at the Cover Drive collection, you’ll find the cricket ball featured on the dial, the game’s most essential elements, placed right at its centre.

For most of cricket’s history, the red ball was the only ball in use. It remains the standard for Test cricket today. Until 1977, every form of the game was played with a red ball. When new, it swings and seams; as it ages, it enables reverse swing, changing how bowlers approach long spells. Its colour also offers the best visibility in daylight, which is why it continues to be used only for Test matches. 

The introduction of the white ball came in 1977 with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in Australia. Designed to work under floodlights and with coloured clothing, the white ball quickly became central to limited-overs cricket. It helped reshape the game into a faster, more broadcast-friendly format. The white ball is also part of the Cover Drive collection, placed at 12H. It's designed to let you use the bezel and track the overs in ODI and T20, just as the white ball in the limited overs. 

Cricket evolved again with the arrival of day-night Test matches. In 2009, the Marylebone Cricket Club began exploring alternatives, as red balls were difficult to see under lights and white balls lacked durability. The solution arrived in 2015, when the pink ball made its international debut during the Australia–New Zealand day-night Test. It combined the endurance of a red ball with improved visibility at night, adding a new chapter to Test cricket.

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The cricket ball is at the heart of the game. In India, it’s part of childhood, training grounds, and professional cricket alike. Every player learns to read it, control it, and respect it. 

That importance is presented in the Cover Drive, launched by Bangalore Watch Company in 2020. Cover Drive was created as a tribute to cricket; the watch brings the game onto the wrist through functional and visual details. Alongside its over-tracking rotating bezel, the dial features bat-inspired elements, stump-style indices, stencil-style boundary markings, and a small white cricket ball placed at 12 o’clock, positioned just above the wicket. 

Every design element on the Cover Drive is inspired. Just as a meteorite belongs on a space-inspired watch, the cricket ball at 12 o’clock belongs on a watch rooted in the game. It becomes a way to share stories about formats, conditions, and the details that shape how cricket is played. 
At Bangalore Watch Company, the aim has always been to create Indian luxury watches that take you somewhere. With the Cover Drive, that place is the cricket ground, carried quietly on the wrist.

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