It was a passion for coins and watches that gave birth to Jaipur Watch Company in 2013. The only company making bespoke watches has a clientele that features many famous names. The company that manufactures its own watches in India has now received a brief to make a timepiece for Prime Minister Narendra Modi (a completely tight-lipped assignment). Gaurav Mehta, the founder and CEO, confesses that he had a passion for watches since the age of 12. "I would open them up, simply curious to see how they functioned. One such time, I opened an HMT watch and placed a brand new one paisa coin in it. It got me a lot of compliments and people started asking where I bought it from, what is the price, etc. This got me hooked to horology. Eventually, I decided it was time to make watches my means of living. It started out in a small way and later worked out."
The company, which initially imported kits-to-be-assembled, now has a manufacturing unit in Jaipur. So, what exactly goes into making a bespoke watch? Why is that a bespoke timepiece from Jaipur Watch Company takes 4-5 months to be made? “First, the customer comes to us with a wishlist or an idea of how they want the watch to look like. We then ask them questions on the kind of watches they prefer, their tastes and so on. Based on this, we send them a sketch which they send back with their notes. Then we send them a series of 2D, then 3D images, which enable them to view the watch from all angles; the thickness, detailing in the body like engravements if any, detailing on the dial and so on. Once the design and look is finalised, we manufacture the watch and begin adding the specific details like engravings, motifs and so on. This involves a lot of handiwork. For example, if it is an image of a diety that the client has requested, the gold particles or stones (as per the customer's request) is embedded by hand on to the dial. Hence, the end product takes upto five months to be completed.
So, what are the different kinds of requests he usually gets from customers? Each design varies as per the customer's personal taste. It can range from a floral design or their sunsign, to a diety or a feather watch.
The collection of handpainted watches are expected to be released by March, along with feather watches by April. Each piece in the collection is bound to be unique, says Mehta. He goes on to say that each watch has a unique serial number and each collection consists at most 200 pieces, making them uncommon indeed. The watches are retailed out of various Tijori stores across the country like Oberoi Tijori Mumbai, Oberoi Sukhvilas in Chandigarh, Tijori Udayvilas, Udaipur, Tijori Amarvilas in Agra and will be available at the Tijori store at Delhi by December.
So, how does he get hold of rare coins that are in pristine collection for the watches he makes? Collecting coins is not an easy task. These have to be uncirculated ones, prefereably with no scratches on them. So I go from one coin collector to the other, inspecting collections, making sure that each coin is usable. The movements used for the watches are varied. This depends on the customer as well as the overall design of the watch. It could be a Swiss quartz or a Swiss automatic movement, a Japanese quartz or a Japanese automatic too. Being the only company in India to make bespoke watches, Mehta ensures that they use materials of the finest quality—be it gold particles or sapphire crystals.
Having high networth individuals among his cleintele, he says, “A Jaipur Watch Company product would never be a first watch for our customers. It would most likely be his third or fourth, more like a collectors' item.” He goes on to say that though he has clients from Dubai and USA, 85 per cent are Indian. As for the entrance of smartwatches in the market, he says, “A good analog watch will always be appreciated. Not just by the older generation, but by the youngsters too. Smartwatches will coexist with the traditional, analog ones rather than make them obsolete. The charm of an analog watch is that a good one will easily last you 30-50 years and can be passed on from one genration to the other as herilooms.”
Mehta who collects watches, has about 300 HMT watches and 14-15 vintage Omegas in his collection.
It was a passion for coins and watches that gave birth to Jaipur Watch Company in 2013. The only company making bespoke watches has a clientele that features many famous names. The company that manufactures its own watches in India has now received a brief to make a timepiece for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gaurav Mehta, the founder and CEO, confesses his passion for watches from the age of 12. “ I would open them up, simply curious to see how they functioned. One such time, I opened an HMT watch and placed a brand new one paisa coin in it. It got me a lot of compliments and people started asking where I bought it from, what is the price, etc. This got me hooked to horology. Eventually, I decided it was time to make watches my means of living. It started out in a small way and later worked out.”
The company, which initially imported kits-to-be-assembled, now has a manufacturing unit in Jaipur. So, what exactly goes into making a bespoke watch? Why is that a bespoke timepiece from Jaipur Watch company takes 4-5 months to be made? “First, the customer comes to us with a wishlist or an idea of how they want the watch to look like. We then ask them questions on the kind of watches they prefer, their tastes and so on. Based on this, we send them a sketch which they send back with their notes. Then we send them a series of 2D, then 3D images, which enable them to view the watch from all angles; the thickness, detailing in the body like engravements if any, detailing on the dial and so on. Once the design and look is finalised, we manufacture the watch and begin adding the specific details like engravings, motifs and so on. This involves a lot of handiwork. For example, if it is an image of a diety that the client has requested, the gold particles or stones (as per the customer's request) is embedded by hand on to the dial. Hence, the end product takes upto five months to be completed.
So, what are the different kinds of requests he usually gets from customers? Each design varies as per the customer's personal taste. It can range from a floral design or their sunsign, to a diety or a feather watch.
The collection of handpainted watches are expected to be released by March, along with feather watches by April. Each piece in the collection is bound to be unique, says Mehta. He goes on to say that each watch has a unique serial number and each collection consists maximum 200 pieces, making them uncommon indeed. The watches are retailed out of various Tijori stores across the country like Oberoi Tijori Mumbai, Oberoi Sukhvilas in Chandigarh, Tijori Udayvilas, Udaipur, Tijori Amarvilas in Agra and will be available at the Tijori store at Delhi by December.
So, how does he get hold of rare coins that are in pristine collection for the watches he makes? Collecting coins sure is not an easy task. These have to be uncirculated coins, prefereably with no scratches on them. So I go from one coin collector to the other, inspecting collections making sure that each coin is usable. The movements used for the watches are varied. This depends on the customer as well as the overall design of the watch. It could be a Swiss quartz or a Swiss automatic movement, a Japanese quartz or a Japanese automatic too. Being the only company in India to make bespoke watches, Mehta ensures that they use materials of the finest quality- be it gold particles or sapphire crystals.
Having high networth indivisuals among his cleintele, he says, “A Jaipur Watch Company watch would neer be a first watch for our customer. It would most likely be his third or fourth, more like a collectors item.” He goes on to say that though he has clients from Dubai and USA, 85% of his clients are Indian. As for the entrance of smartwatches in the market, he says, “A good analog watch will always be appreciated. Not just by the older generation, but by the youngsters too. Smartwatches will coexist with the traditional, analog ones rather than make them obselete. The charm of an analog watch is that a good one will easily last you 30-50 years and can be passed on from one genration to the other as herilooms.”
Mehta who collects watches, has about 300 HMT watches and 14-15 vintage Omegas in his collection.
