In May 2024, Sherpa Kami Rita strapped on a Delhi Watch Company Everest for his 29th summit of Everest — the most summits of any human in history. The watch cost ₹6,999. This is how it got there.
The Record
On May 22, 2024, Sherpa Kami Rita stood on the summit of Mount Everest for the 29th time. No human being has stood there more often. The mountain had become his home, the ascent a ritual. On his wrist — a Delhi Watch Company Everest, retailing at ₹6,999.
Delhi Watch Company
Everest III
₹9.0K
Delhi Watch Company didn't issue a press release before the climb. They confirmed it only after Kami Rita was safely back at base camp. The restraint was deliberate: this wasn't marketing, it was documentation.
The Watch
The Everest is 36mm — smaller than you might expect for an expedition watch. The NH35 automatic movement inside doesn't know it's at altitude. Sapphire crystal. 100m water resistance, which is more than adequate for the dry cold of the upper mountain. The summit-white dial references the permanent snowpack of the Himalayan high camp zone.
At 36mm, it's also DWC's most wearable everyday automatic. The watch that reached the world's highest point is also the watch you'd wear to the office on a Tuesday. That accessibility is the point.
The Brand
Delhi Watch Company was founded in 2020 by Anish Dandwani. The premise: watches that tell Indian stories, built with quality parts at an honest price. The Devanagari Chronograph, its dial written in Hindi script. The Villianur, a slim dress watch named for a temple town near Puducherry. A country with too much history and too little representation in global watchmaking.
The Everest collection extended that logic outward — a watch built to be worn to the top of the world, and one that was, on the wrist of record-setting climber Kami Rita. The Havelock dive watch references the Andaman Islands. The Vayu references the Vedic wind god; its Bison variant honours the MiG-21 that guarded Indian skies for over sixty years. DWC has become the brand that treats India's entire geography and mythology as source material.
Delhi Watch Company
Havelock Blue
₹10.0K
What It Means
The watch industry has a long tradition of summit watches — Rolex has been to Everest since 1953. But those are luxury timepieces worn by funded expeditions. Kami Rita wore the Everest because it worked, because it fit, because a Sherpa who climbs Everest for a living doesn't need a watch rated for conditions that haven't existed since the Ice Age.
The world record summit. The most-climbed mountain. The most accessible Indian automatic. Together, they make a case that Indian watchmaking has arrived somewhere worth noticing.
