The Eternal Watch collection from Jaipur Watch Company
At Jaipur Watch Company, timepieces come with precision and a slice of history. You will find stamps from 1937 with the portrait of King George VI, one anna coins from the early 1900s, and quarter rupee baagh coins from 1947. And looking at a selection of these watches is like taking a walk through a museum that documents the evolution of coins in India, and how they varied in shapes and sizes.
Titled Eternal Watch, the latest collection has a one pice coin on the dial. “This is a significant coin, a sign of the country’s independence. It was the first coin that came with the Ashok Stambh on one side and a galloping horse on the other,” says Gaurav Mehta, founder of Jaipur Watch Company. India got independence in 1947. But it was after January 26, 1950 that we started minting and using our own coins, he explains.
This collection has 300 watches, 150 in stainless steel and the rest gold plated, with blue or white mother of pearl dial. From design to production, it takes five months to create these pieces.
Coins make a frequent appearance in Gaurav’s collections. A coin collector, he has been collecting this specific coin for the last decade. Currently, he possesses more than 1,000 one pice coins. “I have been in the watch business for 11 years making coin watches. I have enough inventory to last me seven to eight years. It’s an ongoing process. I have never stopped buying. Auction houses, numismatists etc., let me know when they get new coins. There is a full community of people that is into coins.”
“I was an inquisitive child and used to open up toys to see what was inside. I used to do so with watches also. One day I found a one pice coin. This by design had a hole in the centre. I decided to stick that inside a Maxima watch using Fevikwik and then wore it,” laughs Gaurav who owns more than 400 watches from different brands. His first was a Swatch that his grandfather gifted him.
Be it the Pichwai Art watches or Raja Ravi Varma collection, India plays a central theme in all his creations. “For us, it’s all about appreciating craftsmanship from India. Our design philosophy speaks about India. You will never find me making a sports chronograph or divers watch,” he says, adding, “Old school watch making is what we are doing. We are inspired by vintage and Art Deco styles of watchmaking. We bring Indianness through elements inside the watch.” While the watch is made in India, the machinery is imported from Japan or Switzerland.
With a gamut of offerings from iconic watchmakers across the world, does he see watch aficionados taking Indian made watches seriously? “In the last four years we have seen that the market has accepted Indian watch brands. Prior to that it was a lot of struggle for me when I started this company in 2013. We were new so we had no clients or suppliers, no market acceptance back then. Now, it’s not just Indians who are buying these watches. We also ship seven to eight orders every week to Dubai, Singapore, Australia and the US,” says Gaurav.
Gaurav Mehta
Prices start at ₹45,000. Available on the Jaipur Watch Company’s website; in stores in Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad and at Taj Khazana and Oberoi Tijori.