BAPE Camo watch

This is a little review of the BAPE Camo watch. The interesting thing about this watch is that it cost USD 20. USD 20 for a BAPE? Is it possible? Yes actually. How? This watch is a novelty watch from BAPE. You buy the BAPE 2009 Winter Collection magazine and get the watch free. I look at is as I buy the watch and get the magazine free. Interested?

Technical specification:

Function: Hours, minutes and seconds

Case: Plastic (ABS?), 42 mm diameter, 16 mm thick, lug width 20 mm

Movement: Seiko Cal. PC21S 6 3/4 x 8 ligne quartz movement

Crystal: Acrylic (?), no AR coating

Water Resistant: ?

CASE

The case is made of 2 parts, the main body and the case back. The entire case is made of plastic (ABS?). The case is beige/ sand in colour. It is well made. All the sides are smooth and the finish is not too bad. There is a cut-out to position the crown.

The case back is a snap back case back. There is a notch at the 1 o'clock (looking at the case back) to facilitate removal of the case back. The case back is signed 'NOWHERE Co. Ltd' and 'All Rights Reserved'. From my understanding, the NOWHERE Co is the company that manufactures BAPE products. It is located in Sendagaya, Japan. There is no BAPE signature on the case back.

I would not use the watch for washing my hands or get it wet. True that the case back has a rubber gasket, but from the photographs, you can see that the gasket is exposed at certain parts of the case. The fit of the case back could be better.

The crown is a simple stainless steel crown. It is polished. The crown measures 4 mm in diameter and is 2.5 mm thick. It has deep serration that helps to provide positive grip. It needs that as the crown is small as compared to the case. The crown is unsigned.

MOVEMENT

The watch is powered by Seiko Cal. PC21S. The movement is made by SII in Singapore. It is a basic 3 hand movement with a single position adjustment. The movement has no jewels.

DIAL

The dial is unique. It is the only place that helps you identify that the watch is a BAPE. The dial has the BAPE ape logo in abstract design. The rest of the dial has the camo effect. The dial is void of hour and minute markers. This makes exact time setting difficult.

The dial is also sterile of any legends.

HANDS

The hands on this watch is also made of plastic (guessing here). All three hands are of the same colour, greenish. The minute hand is long enough to differentiate it from the hour hand. The finish of the hands is very good. It looks like BAPE does not compromise when it comes to their product, even when it is 'free'.

CRYSTAL

I suspect the crystal fitted is made of plastic but just to be nice, it is made of acrylic. Can anyone tell me how to tell the difference, please. There is no AR coating.

STRAP

The strap is rather interesting. It is made of plastic and is clear. The print is on the background. Viewed at certain angles, it does 'give' a 3D effect of the stylised camo colours. The strap measures 115 mm on the hole side and 82 mm on the buckle side. The back of the strap is white.

Again, you can find a stylised BAPE logo on the strap. On the hole side, it is at the tip in black and in green on the buckle side. The strap keeper is translucent clear.

The buckle is also made of plastic. It is unsigned. As with the rest of the watch, it is well made. The buckle is the loop over design.

CONCLUSION

I have to say that it is an interesting watch. Where else can you get a BAPE product for USD 20. This is a novelty and should be treated as such. However it is still cool.