PNN
New Delhi [India], May 21: In 2022, Rajat Patidar went unsold at an IPL auction. He returned as a replacement signing for INR 20 lakhs. Weeks later, he walked into an Eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants and scored 112 not out off 54 balls -- the first uncapped player in IPL history to score a century in the playoffs. The crowd at Ekana Stadium had to look up his name. They have not stopped saying it since.
Three years later, appointed captain at INR 11 crore and carrying the weight of an 18-year title drought, Patidar led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the 2025 IPL Championship. He did not inherit a dynasty. He built one.
In IPL 2026, he enters the playoffs at a strike rate of 213.46, with 21 sixes and a defending champion's composure. ROTORIS -- India's first design-led mechanical watch house -- recognises him as A ROTORIS Man for IPL 2026.
"Cricket has always asked me to be patient with myself. There were years when the path was uncertain, and the recognition came slowly. But I never let the timeline dictate the work. ROTORIS is built on the same conviction -- that what is made with precision and patience does not simply endure, it defines. This is not just a watch on a wrist. It is what both of us stand for."
-- Rajat Patidar, Captain, Royal Challengers Bengaluru
A ROTORIS Man is not a designation for those already at the top. It belongs to those whose ascent cannot be questioned, built in the years when the cameras were elsewhere. Patidar spent those years in Madhya Pradesh, on domestic pitches that rewarded only the patient. He scored a century in the 2022 Ranji Trophy final. He was released. He went unsold. He came back and rewrote what an uncapped player could do on the biggest stage in Indian cricket.
The arc is not incidental to this partnership. It is the reason for it.
"We do not chase the loudest name in the room. We look for the man who earned the right to be there. Patidar went unsold and came back as a champion. He was handed a franchise's 18-year grief and turned it into a title. That is the ROTORIS story. That is the man we want on our wrist."
-- Aakash Anand, Founder, ROTORIS
"Every partnership we build has to survive one question: does this person's story live inside our brand's values, or are we simply borrowing their fame? Rajat's journey -- the patience, the precision, the refusal to let circumstance define the outcome -- is the same argument ROTORIS makes with every timepiece we put into the world. He is not the face of a campaign. He is proof that Become More is not just a brand philosophy. It is a global truth."
-- Prerna Gupta, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer, ROTORIS
Through the IPL 2026 season, Rajat Patidar will wear ROTORIS timepieces on and off the field, as the defending champions enter the tournament's decisive final phase.
The brand arrives at this moment having already written a year of firsts. In March 2026, Alpine F1 Reserve Driver Kush Maini wore the Astonia Sports Chronograph at the Melbourne season opener -- the first time an Indian watch house had a presence on an F1 grid. In April 2026, ROTORIS attended Watches & Wonders Geneva, the foremost gathering in the global watchmaking calendar. This summer, the brand's next chapter opens -- the Astonia and Manifesta collections, available by invitation to a waitlist that numbers in the tens of thousands.
RCB has a captain. India has a timepiece. They were always going to find each other.
About ROTORIS
ROTORIS is India's most desirable watch brand and the country's first design-led mechanical watch house. Founded by Aakash Anand, Prerna Gupta, Anant Narula, and Kunal Kapania, ROTORIS launched on a waitlist model, sold out its first drop of 2,100 numbered timepieces within the first month, and operates direct-to-consumer from day one.
The brand raised USD 3 million in seed funding from Nikhil Kamath, Vivek Oberoi, Tanmay Bhat, 100 Unicorns, and Venture Catalysts, joined by over 30 founders from category-defining Indian companies.
ROTORIS timepieces are designed and assembled in India, with components sourced globally. The flagship Astonia Sports Chronograph features a 42mm matte black stainless steel case, tachymetre bezel, sapphire crystal, and High-Performance FKM Rubber Strap -- built on a meca-quartz movement that delivers mechanical soul with quartz precision.
(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.)
