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A time for every season

A search for different interpretations of time takes Nandini Nair from Connaught Place to the lanes of CHANDNI CHOWK

KEEPING A WATCH! Ikhlas Ahmed Shafi revels in the age-old art of mechanical watch making Photo: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Time can either conquer or be conquered. Tracking the different concepts of time takes us from the designer showrooms of Connaught Place to the crumbling attics of Chandni Chowk.

At Connaught Place time is glamorised. It is to be conquered and crowned. Connaught Place is home to Omega, Rado, Tag Heuer, Longines. As is Vasant Vihar to Opex Paris. Boutiques aim to attract, but often intimidate, with their spanking interiors and dazzling displays.

International brands are new to India. LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), an international leader in luxury, entered India with Tag Heuer, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior only three years ago. Today, LVMH is second only to Omega. For these brands, "luxury is a statement", explains Shah Nawaz Khan, Sales Manager, LVMH Watch and Jewellery India Private Limited. A watch is "not just for showing time, that's what cell phones are for."

The luxury watch industry according to him is growing at 25-30 per cent annually and today, the organised luxury watch industry stands at Rs.600 crore. While metros are the largest market, cities like Ahmedabad and Chandigarh are catching up.

Brand consciousness is growing in India. Meantime a Tag Heuer watch will be identified as a "Shah Rukh Khan watch first and then as a Tag", says Shah Nawaz. Brand ambassadors are essential he says, because there are limited role models in India. Artistes like Shah Rukh Khan spread brand awareness. As probably does Abhishek Bachchan who has just been signed by Omega. Or Brett Lee who flashes his Titan with pride. Not to forget Sushmita Sen, a head-turner with or without Tag!

Selling attitude

Even as disposable incomes and market potential increase, the luxury watch industry continues to be hampered by taxes. In India taxes add up to 70 per cent to prices. Companies claim they are forced to absorb this difference to protect the customer. But Tag is not just selling timepieces. "It is selling an attitude," says Shah Nawaz. Salil Sadanandan, Senior Vice President (Marketing & Sales), Timex Automatics says, "Watches are no longer for utility; they are about fashion." Their Opex Paris collection includes watches in the form of scarves and belts.

Just as Timex uses Brett Lee, Tag uses Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova to sell "determination" and "audacity". Inventing the unimagined, Tag recently launched `Monaco Sixty Nine' a unique watch, which can be `flipped' between a hand-wound mechanical watch and a digital chronograph. There is a two-month waiting period for this Rs.2.75 lakh watch.

Time in Chandni Chowk

Away from the glamour, in the lanes of Chandni Chowk, time is treated with humility. Teetering between imminent ruin and waning glory, it seems that only time will prevail here. Fatehpuri Road is home to a few old watch shops. Some shops have captured fading time in old-model watches. At S.M. Usman & Co, 22-year-old Rado watches sell for Rs.5000. Here admirers of mechanical watches and scorners of quartz watches are found. Usman, wearing two winding wristwatches and few teeth, is still convinced of the superiority of mechanical over quartz watches.

Off the main road and up a steep flight of stairs sits Ikhlas Ahmed Shafi. Barely visible behind skyscrapers of boxes, he presides over Time Klink, `Healthcare of time machines'. His office is remarkable for the clutter of mechanical spare parts and the absence of chairs. Hailing from a lineage of watchmakers, he says today watch making is an "age of high investment and good business acumen. Those who have a name don't know how to open a watch, they only have good showrooms." Dressed in immaculate white, he explains the `calibre' of watches, which is the inside identification of every watch.

He says the absence of a sizeable service centre in Chandni Chowk denies service to the large Rado Diastar clientele. Shafi says that the "labour class", for whom the Rado Diastar is a rite of passage, will not go to Connaught Place to get their watches serviced.

A Master in Micro-mechanics from Switzerland, he laments that today repair shops know only how to "screw in and screw out watches and cannot re-make old parts." The "talent is evaporating and those who do have the skill are losing their eyesight or their hands are getting shaky." To him a watch is a "scientific instrument, which gives time".

He is not enamoured by embellishments but marvels at the recent invention of a seven-barrel watch. To him this mechanical innovation is watch making at its best, and cannot be replicated by Indians.

But in India time is interpreted in different ways. A watch is a thing of fashion and devotion.

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