India’s Titan may be the largest name in Indian watchmaking, but the company is still widely unknown outside of India and among members of the Indian diaspora. The Tata Group-owned Titan company is working to change that, especially as it plans for expansion into new markets, such as the United States. Titan is a deeply complex brand with a number of product styles and price points. Simply finding this Titan Stellar Wandering Hour Automatic watch on its website can be a challenge. The watch is a 500-piece limited edition and is a signal that Titan is not only serious about innovation, but that it wants to be a global watch brand for mainstream and enthusiast tastes alike.
As the name of the watch implies, the theme is of a wandering hour display. This is not a new type of way of indicating the time, but it has a decidedly modern twist to it, given that many of the watches today that feature wandering hour displays are futuristic or at least contemporary in their design. That certainly applies to the Titan Stellar Wandering Hour Limited-Edition Automatic watch with its “celestial” inspiration and use of materials such as bronze and crystalized titanium. Overall, I like this watch very much. Titan’s in-house design team did a good job, and the personality of the product is impressive. The watch has a few issues, and in general, it comes from a Titan that admits its enthusiast-grade watches are a work in progress. The company is somewhat new to a segment like this, and is also working on improving its movement performance and decoration. That said, Titan is certainly ambitious. The last Titan watch I discussed on aBlogtoWatch, the Titan Nebula Jalsa Tourbillon, was much more expensive, certainly more ambitious, and more limited, with a hand-painted dial and gold case.
With names like “Nebula” and “Stellar,” it is very clear where Titan is getting a lot of their inspiration. The Wandering Hour watch does not look like anything else currently in the Titan Stellar model family. It represents a new movement, dial, and case. Let’s start with the movement. Produced and developed in-house, the Stellar Wandering Hour contains the Titan caliber 7AW-D2 automatic. It operates at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 40 hours. The movement has a single large hand assembly that has a rotating satellite assembly on each end. Many wandering hour watches have three or even four satellites, but Titan decided to create a two-satellite system, where each has six different hour numerals on it. The top of the dial has a scale for the minutes. The way time is read is by looking at the currently active hour and seeing where it is along the moving minute indicator track. As one hour ends, the satellite wheel on the other end turns one position so that the next hour can begin. The system works pretty well, and the time is straightforward to read.
Titan did a nice job decorating the rest of the dial. The gray face has a sort of etched texture, and there are lots of interesting shapes and features for your eyes to look at. The gray colors are accents with hints of red, as well as the warmer color coming from the grade 5 bronze bezel. I am not clear if this is the type of bronze that will patina (discolor) or if it is a more stable formulation that will not as easily oxidize. My only quip with the visual elements of the dial is the design of the central arm. The arm/hand is not the same on both ends. It has a design that suggests your eyes should look at one side of it, versus the other (like a watch hand). The problem is that both ends of the arm perform the same function of holding a satellite display. Logically, the arm structure should thus look symmetrical and not “weighted” to one side or the other. This isn’t a huge deal, but it is a refinement issue.
The 7AW-D2 movement is nice looking, and I especially like the design of the automatic rotor. With that said, Titan admits that they need to work on things like overall accuracy. The movement is rated to perform within -10 to +30 seconds per day. Much of that is likely due to the high level of friction and torque involved in moving the wandering hours display system. With that said, Titan has made it clear that one of their mechanical movement development priorities is to increase performance, such as timing accuracy. With that said, I actually don’t know how accurate wandering hour watches are until you get into the very high-end segment (URWERK, Audemars Piguet). Even then, none that I know of are chronometer-certified. For what it is worth, within my own experience of wearing the Stellar Wandering Hour, I didn’t find myself having to adjust the time that often.
One of the coolest parts of the Stellar Wandering Hour watches is simply how it looks. The case has a round face but a tonneau shape overall. Most of the case is produced from crystalized titanium (which has a distinct surface texture to it), and it is relatively lightweight as a result. The crown is protected by an elaborate guard structure, and over the dial is a domed AR-coated sapphire crystal. The Stellar Wandering Hour case is 42mm wide, 13.9mm thick, and has a 49.6mm long lug-to-lug distance. The case is water-resistant to 50 meters. Attached to the case is a custom black FKM synthetic rubber strap. The strap is comfortable, but it is a bit on the longer side – something that people with smaller wrists should be aware of.
The best thing I can say about the Titan Stellar Wandering Hour Automatic watch is that it is fun and exotic. While the functionality of the watch may be familiar, its origin and style are certainly distinctive. The company behind it is powerful and will continue to develop in this area, but the watch has the appeal of something from a much smaller, more focused team of creatives. Like most watches that try new things, the composition is not perfect, and there are quirks here and there. But I’ve enjoyed wearing this Indian timepiece and like having discussions about it since most people in the enthusiast space are still pretty new to Titan. I very much look forward to seeing where the company will take the design and style of their Stellar collection of watches next. The Titan Stellar Wandering Hours Limited-Edition watch has been produced as a set of 500 pieces, with a retail price of 179,995 INR (or about $1,950 USD as of writing). For more information, please visit the Titan website.