When you think you know it all...

I'd like to start off by apologising for not posting anything for a while now. Both CF and I, have been terribly busy with a personal project and been hard pressed to find the time to do anything else. This also meant that we were spending less time with our better halves. So when CF asked me to come along to help him buy a watch for his girl friend, I took the opportunity to get my wife a little something as well.
While on the way to the store, we debated about what to get. We had a budget of around 10k($222) each, so we had our work cut out for us. The biggest challenge was to get a watch that's available locally, which meant that we couldn't take our time ordering something online. Plus with the increase in import duty there was no telling what the customs officials might fancy adding to the price.
The first two options that came to mind were 'Seiko' and 'Tissot', so we started deciding which ones fall within our budget. We were feeling confident with our decision but then CF suggested that we get some confirmation. Now, the only way to do this was to call up the others better half and have them suggest a look or design and then end up buying the same watch for them, while asking them to stay mum, so as to not "ruin the surprise". Interestingly, the conversation on both our ends went something like this:
Me (to CF's girl friend): Hey, I wanna buy a nice watch for the wife, and needed some inputs.
Her: Sure! Just get her something with some bling!
Me: Err...I was thinking of a nice entry level Tissot.
Her: Does it have diamonds on it?
Me: You mean crystals?
Her: Yeah, same thing.
Me: No, not in my budget, but it's still a nice Swiss Made watch from a 'real' watch company and...
Her: Yeah, but bling is in, so she won't like it. Just get anything with diamonds.

The conversation between CF and my wife went the same way. No matter how much we tried pointing out the importance of a good watch making brand, it didn't really make much of a difference. In the end we gave up and made our way to a Guess outlet. There, CF picked up the one on the left:


Since my wife already had to Guess watches, I ended up picking up a Swatch Irony:


The cost? The Guess was for around Rs8,000($178) after a 15% discount, while the Swatch cost Rs6550($145)

Usually, CF and I are the 'go-to' guys for any watch related queries and suggestions and being a WIS it's easy to overlook the so called 'fashion watches'. But the guys in the marketing department for the various fashion houses, know what their customers want. Looks like we have a lot of learning to do!

It was just another slow day at work. I'm about to doze off in front of my monitor, when I get a call. It's my sister. She informs me that her 5 year wedding anniversary is around the corner and she needed my help to buy her husband a nice watch! Also, since most of the other married guys in their group had recently purchased/been gifted nice Swiss watches, she felt that her hubby, who is a doctor, needed to upgrade his watch too (he had a Giordano at the time). Needless to say, CF and I immediately offered her our help.
Here was what she wanted:
1) Recognised brand (no fashion watches)
2) Must be on a bracelet
3) Should be between Rs 25,000-30,000 ( $555-$666)
4) Should be "Swiss Made"

I wanted to suggest Hamilton, but since it's still not a known brand here, I suggested Rado and Tag (F1 series). After further discussion, we decided to go with Rado since it's been here for quite some time and is well known. Also, the F1 would've been slightly over her upper spending limit.
We agreed to meet at Inorbit Mall (a fairly well known Mall in Malad West) after CF and I were done from work.
After looking at a few Rado's we shortlisted a couple:
Rado original R12637113 (automatic)


Rado Coupole R22622712 (quartz)

Both were priced the same and although I was totally routing for the Original, we decided to go with the Coupole since the Original would've looked a little 'chunky' on her husband's smaller wrists. Also, it would be easier to wear under a shirt cuff.
Final price paid Rs 30,000 ($666), so she was quite pleased with the purchase. As for me. and CF...well, it was just another excuse to visit a watch shop, drool at the displays and try on a few watches :p
She plans on giving it to her husband today. I'm sure he's going to love it!

15th International Watch And Clock Fair – Samaya Bharati 2010

Finally! The day I had been eagerly waiting for (or so I thought) the past few months had arrived. And like their banner said, …Its Time For - 15^th International Watch And Clock Fair. I am not kidding, look…(by Crazyfingers)

Bio and I, took a day off from work, grabbed the camera, put on our watches and were off!

I have to point something here, there was almost no or very little advertisement done for this fair. So not knowing what to expect, we were trying to rate the fair on a scale of 1-10 , with 10 being something like Basel World. Bio said he expected it to be a 4. I being a bit more optimistic gave it a 5.

On our way...

The famous Bandra-Worli Sea Link :p

Finally, we arrive at our destination - the Nehru Center

Seiko I think had the best setup. It was the first thing you saw when you entered the building.

They had a lot of watches on display and I was really happy to see the Spring Drive Spacewalk. This watch is stunning! The lovely lady there proudly told us some fact about the watch and proceeded to show us the other new models, all of which I have never seen before. I was however a lil disappointed not to see any Grand Seiko watches there. I believe they are sold only in Japan and I was really hoping to see one.

Titan, India's leading watch manufacturer, had a nice walk-in booth where you could see some of the the machines and tools they use. They even had a machine to laser print your name on the case back. Unfortunately, none of the automatic watches were on display.

They also had this machine to check the accuracy of your watch. The guy manning it said that if the reading was under 1, the watch is accurate. He demonstrated with his watch. The meter read just about 1, indicating that his watch was just about accurate, though it didn't mention anywhere how many seconds a day, the watch looses or gains. We both decided to give it a try anyway-

My Rolex Sub

and the result - it barely moved - highly accurate!

next was Bio's Edouard Lauzieres Tuscany-

and the result - again, the needle didn't move - "highly accurate" said the guy grinning

Also on display were some of the Titan Edge watches, which claim to be the slimmest watch in the Universe

Time for a quick wrist shot

It was a pleasant surprise to see Orient here. After hearing such rave reviews about the Mako, we immediately rushed over and asked the guy behind the counter whether they had one on display, and sure enough, they did!

The guy at the booth was pretty surprised that we knew about Orient watches and was really happy when I told him about all the good things I heard about them. From what I learnt, Orient as of now, have no plans of launching the brand here anytime soon. They were really interested in knowing what kind of watches do people normally wear here and whether Indians prefer bracelets or leather straps. I told him since its pretty humid here, we normally prefer bracelets. He immediately started taking notes about everything I was saying. I really hope they launch the brand here, although I am not sure how successful they will be. People generally prefer quartz movements, which was a bit of a concern to them.

I also asked the guy which watch he had on at the time. He pulled his sleeve back and proudly showed us his World Timer

There were a LOT of fashion brands here

I was told by the people at the Paco Rabanne booth that their watches are directly imported from France and have Swiss quartz movements.

Somewhere amongst all those fashion brands, we were able to find the Victorinox booth where they had the 500 Mecha (which is on my wish list)

Ah! HMT! With my recent fascination with this brand, I really wanted to check out all the new models they had to offer. They also had some larger sized dials (maybe 38-40mm) which might interest a lot of people.

Citizen was there too and no, they did not have the Campanola :(

Some more fashion brands

One such brand that caught our attention was Ice Watch. The are something similar to Toy Watch, with the colourful Submariner styled watches, running on the Miyota quartz movement. They were looking to launch their brand in India soon. With a price range of $80-$300 USD, they are in league with the other fashion brands and I honestly feel will do well if launched here.

Hey, what do we have here? Straps! They were very nice and available in all sizes and colours. The prices were pretty good too with the rubber straps going for Rs.350 ($8) and the leather ones from Rs.250 ($5-$6) to Rs.800 ($17). Unfortunately, they weren't selling any at the time so I had to make do by taking their business card to contact them later.

Apart from all this, there wasn't really something to get interested about and before we knew it, we were at the exit. We felt a bit disappointed and asked around if there was something else to be seen. There was! There was another section to be seen! We quickly headed over there only to find another small area full of clocks - the ones you have already seen at gift shops and some homes. There was this one neat mechanical clock but the guy at the booth was against me taking a pic of it :(

This was an interesting looking clock which is suppose to be very expensive but the price was not disclosed for some reason.

Thats pretty much about it. We were really hoping to see some big manufacturers like Rolex, TAG and Omega, which are pretty popular here, but they were nowhere to be seen. My optimistic rating of 5/10 now changed to 3/10. We decided to call it a day and grab a few drinks with friends before heading home.

Cheers!