Monday, May 04, 2009

BAPE Table Clock

Well the Mayday weekend is over and I was away with the family on holidays. It was a good holiday, just to get away and we ended up in Taichung. What started out as a family vacation, turn out to be a horological adventure with me ending up with 1 table clock, 1 watch and a watch winder.

On with it. The BAPE table clock. Well I did not actually buy the table clock, it was a gift when you buy the BAPE magazine. But since the magazine was in Japanese, well it came to me buying the magazine for the clock.

A bit about BAPE or A Bathing Ape. It is a Japanese clothing company and was founded by Tomoaki Nagao San in 1993. It specializes in street wear. It also does collaboration with Casio to issue BAPE G-Shocks. The company also produces watches under its own brand.


The picture above has not been corrected for white balance. The picture below has.


The table clock itself looks good. The clock is called BAPEX and is produced by BAPE. It is made by human (above the 6 o'clock position). All BAPE products have some saying of sorts. The design of the clock is of the divers design. But don't be fooled as the 'bezel' does not rotate. The dial is shiny (wish it was matte) and the dots are luminous. The BAPE logo is at the 12 o'clock position. The registered trademark 'R' logo at 6 o'clock. The mercedes hands are also luminous. The dot on the second hand is also luminous. The triangle at 12 o'clock has a luminous dot as well.

There is no light function or alarm function. This is a basic table clock that shows the time (hours, minutes and seconds). The second and minutes hands extend to the minute markers and as with all quartz watches, the second hand does not align with the markers.

The clock is made of plastic. It is about 5 inches in diameter (13 cm) and is very light. It is about 1.2 inch (3 cm) thick.


Just how luminous is the clock? Not very. The photo below shows the clock immediately after the light was switched off and the clock was exposed to sunlight for 30 seconds. In fact the dot on the bezel does not even show up. From the picture below, it looks like the BAPE logo is luminous as well.


The clock is battery powered and the movement is made in China by a company called Jia Hao. It has no jewels and is unadjusted (whatever that means). It had a metal stand holder that tilts the clock and holds it in place.


My only complain, as can be seen from the picture below, is that there should have been a flat spot at the 6 o'clock position to assist keeping the clock in place as it has a tendency to roll. Having the flat spot would certainly help to make it more stable. But who am I to complain, as the clock or rather the magazine cost less than USD20.

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