All in good time

Gaurav Mehta, Founder and CEO of ‘Made in India’ brand, Jaipur Watch Company

A horological IPL of sorts is taking place in India. In the last few years, the two great cities of Jaipur and Bangalore have each produced luxury watch startups that have made an impression in India and abroad. And the founders of both companies feel that with time, Indian luxury watch brands can compete with international heavyweights.

“The international luxury market is some 200 years old. India as a country is 73 years old,” says Gaurav Mehta, the brisk talking founder of Jaipur Watch Company, established in 2013, and which makes ornate, Indian-themed watches priced from Rs 16,000 to about Rs 25 lakh. “Give us time, and I’m sure the country will deliver.”

Five years after JWC came BWC, Bangalore Watch Company. Nirupesh Joshi and his wife Mercy Amalraj, hotshot techies in their earlier avatars, started the brand in 2018. BWC’s range comprises classical dress watches, pilot watches inspired by the Indian Air Force’s Mig 21 Type 77 and sports watches dedicated to cricket, which runs thicker than blood in Indian veins. The watches are priced from about Rs 30,000 to Rs 113,000. Though in the affordable luxury bracket, they offer the three key features of a high quality timepiece – a Swiss automatic movement, surgical steel and sapphire glass.

Joshi, who provides in-depth answers without groping for words, says, “You have to say it is very early stages for an Indian luxury watch brand (to compete with international houses). The investment that it takes to build a luxury brand is very different. And I’m quite proud that a couple of guys (BWC and JWC) not from the watch-making industry have taken on the endeavor.”

Mehta and Joshi also mention the average Indian customer’s tendency to covet foreign makes over Indian ones as one of the challenges they face. At the same time, they have seen consumers with an evolved taste, and who take note of where a product is made.

Nirupesh Joshi and Mercy Amalraj, Founders of Bangalore Watch Company. (Image: Bangalore Watch Company website )

Says Mehta, “I was the first person to create a luxury Indian watch brand. So it was a bigger fight for me [for acceptance] than for the newer players. When I entered the market the response was very rigid. There were people who were not convinced that an Indian brand could be luxurious. Even some Indian people suggested to me, ‘Instead of saying Jaipur Watch Company, say JWC. Thoda international lagega’.”

However, an influential luxury watch distributor in India remarked to Mehta that he had a winner in the name ‘Jaipur’. “He said, ‘Gaurav, you don’t know the impact of the name you have. Jaipur is a brand in itself’,” Mehta recalls.

As a history buff, Mehta did not need reminding about the cultural richness of his city. “Jaipur is known for its gemstones, its aesthetics. And the kind of watches we do, be it their artistry, be it the enamel painting, somewhere, they speak about Jaipur,” he says.

More respect came when Jaipur Watch Co. started making expensive bespoke watches.

“Our average bespoke ticket size is Rs 4 lakh. And the maximum we have sold is around Rs 25 lakh for a watch. This kind of acceptance coming from Indians for an Indian brand is in itself a sign of how the market has evolved,” says Mehta.

Joshi had stints in the US, Seoul and Hong Kong when he was a high-flying boss at Akamai Technologies. Husband and wife travelled extensively for work and pleasure. Their lucrative jobs and rarefied environment led to a growing interest in premium watches. So when they decided to change the course of their professional lives, they started a luxury watch company, but which told stories of a confident, 21st century India, and not the stereotypical India as imagined by Westerners.

“We have a lot of respect for Swiss watch companies. They built excellent brands over the last century or two centuries. But whenever they made India inspired watches, they reflected an outdated view of India,” says Joshi. “So we thought, why not create a watch company that stands for two things. 1. High quality watch-making that can compete with the Swiss watch players in its price segment. 2. Every single collection telling a story that can connect with young, 21st century Indian people.”

Further addressing the subject of taking on international luxury leaders, Joshi says, “We (Indians) still unfortunately carry the baggage that anything made overseas must be of good quality. That baggage is not going to be an easy bump to get across. However, what gave us the confidence to throw our hat in the ring was that there is an up and coming class of Indians who are proud of our heritage and are willing to pay for a premium Indian brand. As long as it meets the quality standards that this refined customer expects. We can see this not just in the watch industry, but all around India today. If you look at [brands like] Kama Ayurveda, Forest Essentials, Nappa Dori leather goods, Blue Tokai and Flying Squirrel coffee, Bombay Shirt Company, Nicobar, Andamen… this is happening all around us.”

JWC and BWC, two companies flying the flag of Indian horology via different aesthetic routes, are gracious about each other’s work.

“Gaurav is a good friend,” says Joshi. “We speak often. I have a lot of respect for what he is trying to do. What he is doing is quite different [than us], the style, the design language is different.”

Says Mehta, “Nirupesh has done a very good job. He has come up with good products and nice concepts, be it the Air Force theme, the cricket theme.”

Gaining the scale and profile of elite international companies will take time. To continue the cricket analogy, India has simply not batted as many overs as its counterparts overseas. But it has begun its innings and the scoreboard is ticking.