Tournament and the Watch

The Ranji Trophy has been running since 1934 and remains India's oldest domestic cricket tournament. Named after K.S. Ranjitsinhji, the first person of Indian origin to play Test cricket, it forms the foundation of India's first-class cricket structure. Ranjitsinhji represented England in 1896, scoring 154 on debut and establishing himself as one of the most technically accomplished batsmen of his era. Though he never played for India, which did not yet have a Test team during his lifetime, his name became forever linked to the tournament that would shape generations of Indian cricketers and serve as the pathway to Test cricket. 

The cover drive is one of the most recognised shots in the game. It is a front-foot stroke played through the offside, requiring the batsman to get to the pitch of the ball and drive with a full, straight bat. It is considered a mark of a technically correct batsman. Most players who come through the Ranji Trophy's long format develop it as a core shot. 

It is not a power shot. It is a shot built on balance, timing, and control. When it is played well, it looks effortless because of how much work has gone into getting it right. 

The Cover Drive collection takes its name from that stroke. The watches are built around references to the game - the pitch, the outfield, the jersey colours, the boundary markers. Each watch in the collection corresponds to a specific part of cricket's visual and material world. 

The dial follows a sandwich construction, two layers of metal with the top layer cut to reveal the one beneath it, creating a depth that references the layered textures of the outfield and the pitch. The dial colours reflect cricket's visual language directly: the blue of the Indian jersey, the yellow of the team down south, the brown of a used pitch, the black of the pavilion. The boundary markers on the dial are not decorative. They are a reference to one of cricket's most recognised moments. 

The Cover Drive collection was built around the domestic circuit, the red ball, and the multi-day format that has produced India's greatest players across ninety years of competition. The cricket inspired watches were designed to be worn by people who understand what the game means in India not as entertainment, but as history. 

At Bangalore Watch Company, the story behind a watch is not separate from the watch itself. It lives in the construction, the material, and the details on the dial. The Cover Drive carries the sport of cricket. Apogee draws from India's space programme. Peninsula is built around the country's landscapes and the outdoors. Some of that storytelling sits in the design, and some sits in the material, the meteorite dial, the recovered carbon black in Peninsula Carbon, the sandwich construction in Cover Drive. 

The movement keeps time. Everything around it carries the story. Every Indian automatic watch from Bangalore Watch Company is a story on your wrist, and the Cover Drive is the one that carries the game.