The ISRO launch site on the dial

India's space programme did not begin with towering rockets or high-tech control rooms. It began in a small fishing village on the west coast, where scientists carried rocket parts on bicycles and rocket fairings on bullock carts. From these humble beginnings in the late 1960s, India has grown into one of the world's few spacefaring nations, sending missions to the Moon and Mars, and building satellites that now orbit the Earth. 

But before any of that could happen, ISRO needed a permanent home for its rockets, a site built for real launches, not just early rocket experiments. That search, led by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, ended at a narrow strip of land off the coast of Andhra Pradesh: Sriharikota. 

Today, Sriharikota is where nearly every Indian rocket lifts off. It's also where the coordinates on every Apogee dial point to. To understand why Bangalore Watch Company chose to place this location on a watch, it helps to first understand why ISRO chose this island in the first place. 

Sriharikota is a spindle-shaped barrier island on the Bay of Bengal, about 80 kilometres north of Chennai. To its east lies the open sea. To its west lies the calmer, brackish water of Pulicat Lake and the Buckingham Canal. This positioning gives the island a natural advantage: water on two sides, offering both a safety buffer and enough distance from nearby towns. The island also sits close to the equator, ideal for the eastward launches that save fuel. 

The space-qualified Apogee Collection from Bangalore Watch Company features the latitude and longitude coordinates of Sriharikota printed at the 6 o’clock position, just above the date window. It serves as a subtle, constant reminder of India’s continuing space missions launched from Sriharikota.

At Bangalore Watch Company, Apogee is our tribute to India's journey in space, from bicycles and bullock carts to a country capable of building and launching its own rockets. Every detail on the watch is chosen to reflect that journey, and the Sriharikota coordinates, placed at the 6 o'clock position on the dial, are one of the most understated. 

It's a small detail, easy to miss at first glance. But once you know what it means, you notice it every time you check the time: a quiet reminder of the island where India's rockets leave the ground. 

On the Apogee Supernova, this coordinate sits on a green fumé dial inspired by the light of a collapsing star, one of the gradient finishes used across the collection. Turn the watch over, and the caseback carries Aryabhata, India's first satellite, set into the Cerasteel™ case that defines the Apogee line. Together, the dial and the caseback carry two chapters of the same story: where India's satellites are launched from, and the country's first satellite itself. 

The Apogee has even been tested and qualified for outer space, built with the same precision the story asks for: space-grade materials, mechanical precision, and a Swiss automatic movement, in a design that looks forward while still honouring where it all began. It makes you wonder: would this be the choice of the first Indian astronaut? 

As a nation, we can choose to look back and celebrate our history, or we can look at the present and recognise how far we've come. For India, that journey is reflected in achievements across space, aviation, and cricket. 

At Bangalore Watch Company, every collection tells one of those stories. The MACH 1 celebrates Indian aviation as a pilot watch, while the Cover Drive is a tribute to the spirit of Indian cricket and the evolution of the game. 

Each watch also carries a defining symbol that anchors its story. For the Apogee, that symbol is Sriharikota—the birthplace of India's space missions and one of the country's most significant landmarks in space exploration. 

If you know the story of Sriharikota, the watch serves as a reminder of that achievement. If you don't, it invites you to discover it. That's what our watches are meant to do—they connect you to a story that has shaped modern India.