INDIA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH WATCHES

“When it comes to timepieces, Bengaluru has been a hub of watchmaking from the 60s, and the trend, no matter how niche, continues even today”

- Bangalore Edition, INDIATIMES, 5th August 2018

The Story of Mass Indian Watch Manufacturers:

Two years ago, in September 2016, we saw the Indian government phase out the watch division of HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools). It was a brand founded in Bengaluru in 1961 and perhaps those much older than I may remember that the first set of manual winding watches were inaugurated by none other than Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sure, HMT watches were not as fine as some of the Swiss watches that one saw back in the day, but they were as Indian as any watch company could get - with its watches named Vijay, Sainik, Janata, Sona, etc and the letters ‘made in India’ proudly marked on the lower half of the dail, not to forget the commemorative editions made for anniversaries of the Indian Tobacco Company,etc. Technical collaborations with Japanese watch company Citizen saw HMT reach its peak in the 70s when supply was not able to meet the rising demand for watches. In 1981, another Public Sector Unit, Allwyn, entered the market in partnership with japanese giant, Seiko, but was still unable to fill the gap between supply and demand.

Having observed the effect of the quartz revolution on the global market for watches, Tata saw an opportunity. In a joint venture with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), the Tata Group founded Titan Watches Limited in 1984. Titan set up a factory in Hosur (then, Tamil Nadu), hired a retiring executive director from HMT at the helm and decided to go with 100% quartz electronic watches. Titan’s first collection, ‘Titan Acura’ met with great success and today Titan holds roughly 60% of the market share. The Indian story on watchmaking:

India has had a unique relationship with the watch world. From European watch brands relying heavily on Indian patronage, to Indian watch Microbrands at the helm of what they hope will be looked down in history as the legacy of Indian Watch Making, we’ve got it all.

There’s an interesting story on Cartier’s blog that talks about the Delhi Durbar of 1911, when Jacques Cartier opened boxes of glittering jewels only to find that the Maharajas wanted something more simple - Cartier’s Silver pocket watch. Several European Watch companies are known to have made exotic timepieces for Indian clients. Documented in the Cartier archives are orders like that from the Nawab of Rampur, who commissioned four carriage clocks to be designed to sound like European cathedral bells. Even Jaeger LeCoultre claims that their iconic Reverso model

Figure 67. The Hindu 2016 Royal Indian Patronage

was created upon the request of a polo player from India in 1931.

The blend of local traditions and international luxury made India a unique market for foreign watch companies. Marc de Panafieu, director of Jaeger LeCoultre in the middle east, holds that the era of late 19th to mid 20th century was a great time for European luxury brands as the Indian market was dominated by royal families who, had absolutely no dearth of wealth.

Due to the extremely centralized nature of India’s relationship with horology, middle class India would be educated in the world of watches only much later. With the advent of HMT, who sourced their movements from Citizen, in an attempt to mass produce and its succession by Titan who sold Quartz watches and phased out mechanical watches, it seemed as if no one had the time to learn the intricacies of fine horology when there were cheaper and more efficient alternatives that could serve the purpose of telling time.

With the decentralization of information and travel, Indians begun to appreciate the fine workings of mechanical timepieces, this is where the swiss dominate. In recent times, the Swiss watch industry in India is worth anywhere between 1,000 - 1200 crore rupees. And while tourbillons, minute repeaters and other fine mechanical watch complications may not get the average watch consumer excited, notions of value for money and a chance to stand out does. studio to create authentic product design for their products. Prior to this, companies would often take stock from China and rebrand for sale in India.. In later years, Titan also began making their own movements and in 2002, their edge movement made worldwide acclaim for being having created the world’s thinnest watch at 3.4mm (the movement thickness was 1.15mm).

As a country, we’ve been known to have fantastic jewellers but watch making has never been our pedigree. However, perhaps that is about to change. Titan was one of the first companies in India to take the leap of establishing a design