Hands on Review: DWC (Delhi Watch Company) VAYU Automatic
In today’s hands-on review, I am presenting DWC VAYU, an automatic timepiece inspired by the designs of historic tool watches.
DWC is a small watchmaker based in Delhi in India. It makes affordable wristwatches equipped with quartz or mechanical movements. The notable mechanical models made by DWC are Everest, VAYU and Heritage. The important quartz watches from Delhi Watch Company are Villianur, Kolar, Midnight and Devanagari.
According to the company, VAYU is an interpretation of the famous dirty dozen watch design.
About the Dirty Dozen Watches
Dirty Dozen is a synonym used to denote the field watches made by 12 companies (Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex) for British Ministry of Defense during the Second World War.
As recommended by the British armed forces, the so-called dirty-dozen watches featured an easily readable dial in black featuring a broad-arrow symbol, Arabic numeral hour-markers and a small-seconds indicator. Enhanced with luminous coating on the hands and hour-markers, this dial-layout became a hallmark of field watches.
The original dirty-dozen timepieces were equipped with hand-mound mechanical movements. Although the dial design remained same, the case diameters varied depending upon the manufacture. According to vintage military watch experts, these steel timepieces were produced in 35mm, 36mm, 36.5mm, 37mm and 38mm case sizes.
DWC VAYU Automatic Watch
In 2022, DWC introduced the first edition of VAYU, the first mechanical wristwatch from the brand. Designed after WW II era pilot watches, this 36mm timepiece was launched with a renovated HMT 0231 mechanical hand-wound movement.
Launched in 2023, DWC VAYU 2.0 is a modern automatic wristwatch that merges various hallmarks associated with historic pilot and field watches. With a case diameter of 40mm, it is significantly larger than its predecessor. Just like VAYU 1.0, the new limited edition model has a minimalistic “time-only” layout with three centrally placed hands.
The dial is easy to read, thanks to the black matte-finished surface with white numerals and details.
In my opinion, the railway-road minute-track and lumed Arabic numeral hour-markers are the two main attributes that connect this timepiece to the so-called Dirty Dozens. The date display has been omitted to make the dial in line with that of vintage field watches.
DWC VAYU doesn’t have a small-seconds dial, which is one of the hallmarks of Dirty Dozen field watches. In that place, the brand placed a small roundel (circular symbol) of the Indian Air Force on the lower dial part to make it more appealing.
In place of the 12-H numeral, DWC VAYU spotlights a triangle marker, usually found on the dials of pilot watches. The diamond-cut, baton-shaped hour and minute hands employ luminescent coating. The centre-seconds hand doesn’t feature any lume.
The printed Arabic numerals, triangle at 12H and the four rectangle indexes representing cardinal points (12, 3, 6 and 9) on the minute track feature luminous coating. According to the brand, this timepiece features the Super-Luminova C3 pigment, which glows in green in the absence of light.
With a diameter of 40mm (46mm including crown) and 11.8mm thick, the case spotlights alternate brushed and polished finishings. The lug to lug length is 48mm and lug/strap width is 20mm.
Protecting the dial side is a flat sapphire crystal surrounded by a domed steel bezel. The rear-side of the watch is secured with a dome screw-in case-back with a flat mineral glass, which offers the view of mechanical self-winding movement beating inside.
The steel case-back ring features laser-etched inscriptions including the limited edition number. Rated for 100 meter resistance, the watch is equipped with a screw-down crown with a laser etched roundel on the top. Thanks to its large size and coin-edged sides, the crown is easy to operate.
DWC VAYU houses a Japanese Seiko NH 35A automatic movement with bidirectional winding. Beating at the rate of 21,600 vph, this 24 jewel calibre offers hacking seconds and hand-winding functions. It provides an approximate power reserve of 41 hours. Visible through the exhibition case-back, the oscillating weight does not have any custom decoration.
The VAYU automatic watch is fitted on a leather strap with a stainless steel pin buckle. The top surface of the leather has a black matte-finish, contrasted by white stitching on the borders. It also has quick release pins, allowing the fast swapping of compatible bracelets or straps.
Each timepiece comes inside a leather pouch. Already sold out, VAYU 2.0 had an approximate retail price of $96.
My Opinion on the DWC VAYU Automatic Watch
According to me, DWC VAYU Automatic is a cost-effective product suitable for tool watch enthusiasts. The key assets of this timepiece are its workhorse NH 35A Calibre, minimalist dial design and solidly built exteriors.
Within this affordable price tag, it offers desirable tool-watch features like 100m water-resistance rating, quick release strap and an easy to use screw-down crown. Featuring a non-reflective matt-finished surface and contrasting details, the dial affords effortless reading of time. Thanks to its frill-free and utilitarian design, VAYU can be utilized as a daily beater.
Regarding the design, it is not exactly a Dirty Dozen style watch as claimed by the brand. An emblematic feature of all the twelve Dirty Dozen watches is the small seconds counter located at 6H. However, the interpretation by DWC comes with a centre seconds hand.
The luminous coating applied on the hands and indexes offers very good glow but it fades after a few minutes. Finally, the leather pouch supplied with DWC VAYU is not spacious and it also doesn’t have any feature to protect the glass from damages from external forces.
Note: Although the NH35A Calibre incorporates a date function, DWC VAYU has been designed without a date display. The crown is screw-in type and it has three positions: Normal, Position 1 for the date, and Position 2 for adjusting the time.
When you set the time, unscrew the crown by rotating it anticlockwise and then pull it out. It is to be noted that when you pull-out the crown initially, it selects the position number one for setting the date. In this timepiece, there is no need to set the date so pull out the crown again to select the position number 2 for adjusting the hours and minutes.
After setting the time, push the crown in to the normal position, and rotate it clockwise to reach the perfect screwed-in condition for ensuring optimum water-resistance.
DWC VAYU Unboxing Video
