It all started with my Halios Seaforth GMT. With my family in India, I was always dealing with that half-hour difference — GMT+5:30 — that no watch ever seemed to get right. Every day I’d find myself rounding down the time, guessing whether my family might still be awake or already asleep. Did the revered GMT complication really exclude one in five people on earth that lived in non-standard timezones? I started wondering if there was a better way.
I didn’t want to make a dual-time watch or devise a fancy complication just for the sake of it. I wanted a practical solution. So I began studying the mechanics of GMT movements like the ETA 2893 and Sellita SW330, sketching and experimenting for weeks. Then one day it clicked — a multi-vertex hand, like a web connecting different points in time. It could track two time zones’ hours and minutes in one structure.
I brought the idea to a German watchmaker I admired. After I explained it, he looked at me for a moment, then said he couldn’t understand why nobody had done it before. His wife translated his stoic demeanor as unbridled excitement. That’s when I knew I was onto something.
A few months later, I took an impromptu trip to Baselworld 2019 — not realizing it would be the last one ever. Walking through those halls, surrounded by legends like Max Büsser and the Grönefeld brothers, felt like stepping into a dream. Sharing my idea with them, seeing their surprise and genuine interest, meant the world to me.
The design phase that followed was the hardest part. Months of trial, error, and failed experiments finally led to the Delta Type — a watch that could display any two time zones on Earth. The look evolved from minimal to personal. It was already an enthusiast’s watch and the first of its kind, why not make it a statement? The dial drew from the Indian art form of kolam, a nod to where this idea drew inspiration from.
When the first prototype arrived — built through collaborations across Switzerland, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Italy — I held it and just stared. The abyss black dial, the gold Ardra Labs logo, the engraved rotor, the sand-blasted hands. It all came together.
When I finally put it on my wrist, I looked down, smiled, and called my family. Right on time.
