A Sports Watch Gets the Camo Treatment: BAPE’s TYPE 1 BAPEX Returns in Blue and Green

BAPE reworks its signature timepiece with two new ABC camo dials, landing online Friday and in stores the next day.

A BATHING APE has never been shy about putting its most recognizable pattern on things that have nothing to do with a hoodie. This week it is a watch case, again. The brand’s BAPEX line reintroduces its TYPE 1 profile in two new colorways, ABC CAMO BLUE and ABC CAMO GREEN, and the timing lines up with a busy August stretch for the label’s accessories arm.

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A watch dial is a strange place to put camouflage, and that is more or less the point. A BATHING APE, founded by Nigo in Tokyo in 1993, built its identity on a handful of instantly readable motifs: the ape head, the shark hoodie zip, and the ABC camo print that has appeared on everything from outerwear to backpacks to now, for a second run, a wristwatch face. The brand’s own release notes describe TYPE 1 BAPEX as a reinterpretation of a “sports watch beloved across eras,” filtered through the label’s design language rather than a straightforward reissue.

What that means in practice is a dial where the camo pattern is not an accent, it is the whole face. Where a typical sport watch dial reads flat and utilitarian, these two references break that up with a printed camouflage field, so the piece reads as streetwear first and tool watch second even though the internals are built to function like the latter. It is a deliberate inversion, and it is one BAPE has leaned on before with earlier BAPEX drops built around the same ABC camo motif, including a 1ST CAMO version that used a similar green and yellow dial treatment years prior.

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Strip away the print and there is a fairly serious watch underneath. The case is built from 316L stainless steel, the same corrosion resistant alloy used across most mid tier mechanical watches, paired with a ceramic bezel and a sapphire crystal front, a material chosen specifically because it resists scratching far better than mineral glass. That is a step up from some of BAPEX’s earlier camo releases, which used mineral glass in place of sapphire.

The movement is a Miyota 8215, a Japanese automatic caliber built by Citizen’s movement division that has become something of a workhorse in the affordable mechanical watch world for its reliability rather than its complexity. It runs hour, minute and second hands off a self winding rotor, adds a date window, and holds roughly 42 hours of power reserve once fully wound, meaning it will keep time for close to two days if left off the wrist. Water resistance is rated to 100 meters, which is more than enough for daily wear and the occasional splash, though not intended for serious diving.

None of that is flashy on paper, and that seems to be the intent. BAPE is not trying to compete with a dive watch specialist here. It is taking a dependable, well proven movement and wrapping it in a case and dial that could only have come from one brand’s design vocabulary.

That framing matters more than it might first appear. Fashion label watches have a long, uneven track record when it comes to what actually sits under the dial. Plenty of streetwear and luxury crossover pieces lean entirely on quartz movements sourced cheaply and dressed up with an eye catching case, banking on the logo to carry the sale. BAPE’s decision to keep using an automatic caliber across its higher end BAPEX references, rather than defaulting to battery powered movements the way some of its own lower tier accessory lines do, is a small but consistent signal about where the brand wants this particular product line to sit. It is not positioning TYPE 1 as a disposable novelty item. It is positioning it as a watch someone might actually wear daily and wind by hand when the power reserve runs down, camo dial or not.

The ceramic bezel deserves a mention on its own, too. Ceramic has become something of a shorthand in the broader watch industry for scratch resistance and color stability, since the material does not fade or dull the way anodized aluminum bezels can after years of sun exposure and daily wear. Seeing it paired with a sapphire crystal on a watch priced well under six figures in yen, rather than reserved for the brand’s higher end limited pieces, suggests BAPE is treating TYPE 1 as more than just an accessory line filler between apparel drops.

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Both new references share the same case construction and technical specification, and the difference comes down entirely to color. ABC CAMO BLUE runs a blue toned camouflage field across the dial, while ABC CAMO GREEN swaps that for a green based print, and both are set against a polished stainless steel case that BAPE’s own copy describes as giving the piece presence “from every angle.” Each is priced at 71,500 yen including tax, putting the pair solidly in the upper range for the BAPEX line, above the entry level camo models the brand has released in years past.

The release itself is staggered across two days, a pattern BAPE has used consistently for higher demand product. The BAPE.COM web store gets first access starting at noon Japan time on Friday, August 7, giving online shoppers a full day’s head start before the pieces reach physical stores. Authorized A BATHING APE retail locations pick up the release on Saturday, August 8, rolling out “successively” per the brand’s own wording, which typically signals that not every location will have stock the moment doors open.

 

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BAPEX as a line has been around long enough now to have its own internal lineage, and the camo dial idea specifically goes back to at least 2018, when BAPE released a 1ST CAMO TYPE 1 BAPEX in black and silver colorways at a noticeably lower price point, sourced with a Japanese made 21 jewel automatic movement rather than the Miyota caliber used here. A later camo focused release, TYPE 2 BAPEX in ABC CAMO CRYSTAL STONE, took a different approach entirely, setting cubic zirconia stones into the bezel across green, pink and blue dials and pricing well above both the original and this current pair.

Seen against that backdrop, this week’s TYPE 1 release reads less like a brand new concept and more like BAPE returning to a design it knows resonates, refined with better glass and a case finish that leans more toward the label’s current 2026 aesthetic than its earlier, more utilitarian camo watches. The brand has also been running a broader ABC CAMO push across apparel this year, and a watch drop timed alongside that kind of category wide camo push is a familiar move for a brand that likes its signature print to show up everywhere at once.

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At 71,500 yen per piece, both colorways sit at a price point that reflects the sapphire crystal, ceramic bezel and 316L steel construction rather than the brand markup alone, at least relative to comparable Japanese fashion label watches built around similar automatic movements. Buyers outside Japan will need to watch currency conversion and shipping terms closely, since BAPE.COM’s web store policies on international orders have shifted release to release.

Given the split release structure, the most likely bottleneck is the Friday online window rather than the Saturday store rollout. Limited run accessory pieces from BAPE have sold through quickly in past drops, particularly camo dial pieces that draw crossover interest from both streetwear collectors and watch enthusiasts who don’t typically shop the brand’s apparel lines. Anyone specifically chasing one colorway over the other should plan around the noon Friday start time in Japan, since staggered retail rollout the next day offers no guarantee that a specific store will carry both references, or any stock at all, on day one.

There is also a broader context worth noting around timing. BAPE has spent much of 2026 pushing ABC camo across nearly every category it touches, from graphic tees and shark hoodies down to daypacks and shoulder bags, treating the print less like a recurring motif and more like a house wide theme for the year. A watch release built entirely around that same pattern, arriving mid year rather than tied to a specific seasonal collection drop, reads as a deliberate extension of that push rather than a standalone accessory release. It gives the brand another entry point into the camo story for shoppers who are not necessarily in the market for apparel but want something recognizably BAPE on the wrist.

For collectors specifically watching the resale and secondary market, the earlier 1ST CAMO TYPE 1 references from 2018 have held reasonably steady value years after release, a pattern that tends to repeat with BAPE’s most visually distinct accessory drops rather than its more generic ones. Whether this new pair follows that trajectory will come down to how view the camo dial reads at a glance and how the finishing holds up against daily wear, both of which are difficult to judge from renders and official photography alone. What is clear from the brand’s own materials is that the build quality on paper, sapphire over mineral glass, a ceramic bezel instead of painted steel, marks a real step up from the entry level camo watches BAPE was selling less than a decade ago.