ReviewAn Ode To India’s Capital City: Carl F. Bucherer Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown Edition New Delhi

Naming watches after a geographical location has been a popular horological trend, one that mostly banks on the sentiments of the patriotic and the immigrant populace for conversion into sales. IWC fashioned their Portofino collection after the eponymous scenic fishing village located on the Italian Riviera, for its ‘laid-back lifestyle of the Mediterranean and good taste’ that has drawn ‘the rich and famous’ to its shores like a moth to a flame. TAG Heuer, meanwhile, looked at the principality of Monaco on the French Riviera, not for its famous Casino de Monte-Carlo—frequented by the fictional British spy James Bond to snuff out nefarious activities—but for its Grand Prix races; a collaboration that birthed the iconic Monaco collection, replete with the racing hues. Jacob & Co lend their ostentatious flair to the Astronomia India Art and Epic X India Edition timepieces by engraving India’s famous landmarks on the dials. In the same vein, Swiss watchmaker Carl F. Bucherer incepted their Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown Edition watches in 2018 to acknowledge their headquarters, Lucerne in Switzerland, and their ‘adopted’ homes—global cities with strong brand presence. By 2022, the brand had manufactured watches themed after 16 cities (from nine countries), including the Indian city of Mumbai. More recently, they expanded the line with another Indian city-themed watch. In a 41mm stainless steel case, with burgundy dial, this timepiece is dedicated to New Delhi.

In Focus: New Delhi

The BiCompax Annual Hometown timepiece is in continuum with the Carl F. Bucherer Heritage collection, which was incepted to address the brand’s Lucerne roots into their horological legacy. In fact, the brand’s motto is ‘Rooted in the heart of Switzerland, but at home everywhere in the world’. This Heritage line is known to identify previous iterations from other Carl F. Bucherer collections that deserve to be retained in public memory and upgrades them with modern-day design and technical sensibilities.

The New Delhi edition, like other Hometown editions, almost seems like a replica of the 2019 black-and-white Heritage BiCompax Annual watch with the dial featuring identical timekeeping elements. There’s the black bicompax layout, with counters at three o’clock (minutes) and nine o’clock (small seconds), and corresponding chronograph pushers on the case adjacent to two o’clock and four o’clock. There are 10 white Arabic hour markers, two black SLN colour hour markers, rhodium-plated black Super-LumiNova applied central hour and minute hands, chronograph seconds hand, big date aperture below 12 o’clock, Carl F Bucherer logo above six o’clock, annual calendar’s month window wedged between four and five o’clock (date to be corrected only once a year), and contrasting tachymeter scale.

The major distinguishing factor for all the Hometown timepieces is just the dial hue; a choice between five hues: brown (Paris, Lucerne, Zermatt), green (Berlin, New York, Bern, London, St Gallen, Beijing, Mumbai, Zurich), yellow (Munich), burgundy (Geneva, Beijing, Basel), and mint (Vienna, Tokyo). These dials showcase a gradient effect (a silvery centre with increasingly dark periphery), further accentuated with a distinct sunray-brushed finish.

For The Real Excitement About New Delhi, Look At The Caseback

The second signature design trait that distinguishes one Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown Edition timepiece is the detailed 3D engraving of the said city’s globally recognised monuments and their skylines on the sapphire crystal caseback. For the New Delhi Edition, the city’s most important landmarks stand in a row—Qutub Minar, Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Lotus Temple, and TV Tower—as if on the horizon, and reflected in the water body before them. Encircling this craftsmanship is a band, engraved with the city name, unique watch number and limited-edition number (example: 1 out of 88). Like the other Heritage Hometown iterations, the New Delhi watch runs on the automatic CFB 1972 calibre that offers 42 hours of power reserve when fully wound.

The dial of the Hometown Edition New Delhi replicates the 2019 black-and-white Heritage BiCompax Annual watch with the same bicompax format, date aperture, contrasting Arabic hour markers and more

The Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown Edition New Delhi watch has a perforated calfskin leather strap with red stitching that matches the dial. It also has a quick-release system. Keeping the watch secured on the wrist is a stainless steel pin-lock folding clasp. Each Hometown timepiece, including the New Delhi version, is available as a limited edition of 88; harking to the year in which the brand was founded, 1888.

Carl F. Bucherer Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown Edition New Delhi In A Nutshell

Case: Stainless steel, 41mm, double-domed sapphire crystal with antireflective coating on both sides, caseback with engraved sapphire crystal (featuring monuments of New Delhi)

Dial: Gradient burgundy, with black counters in snailed pattern, 10 Arabic numerals (numerals 6 and 12 in black SLN)

Functions: Chronograph: minutes and seconds counters, annual calendar, big date, hour, minute, small seconds, tachymeter scale

Movement: Automatic, CFB 1972 calibre, 47 jewels, 42 hours of power reserve

Strap: Black calfskin leather strap with side stitching in burgundy, quick release system, stainless steel pin-lock folding clasp

Limited edition: 88 pieces

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