Customers!

The other day, I paid a visit to a watch shop for picking up few watches I had ordered for. This place was bustling with customers and I started browsing the watches on display while waiting to be attended to. They had all the fashion brands on display as usual and of course Titan and Timex. Bio and I always dream of owning a nice watch shop one day where we could service,repair and sell good brands and meet other watch enthusiast. However, the customers here were nothing like that at all.
There was one guy who had a badly worn out strap with one of the keepers missing (which he substituted with a rubber band). I think he had a Fossil watch on and wanted to get the strap replaced. The guy behind the counter told him that it would cost him around Rs.1800 (~$40) to get a new original one, which seemed to be too much for him. He instead chooses to keep the strap as it is with the rubber band as a keeper and walks out. Now, I'm thinking, why couldn't he just replace it with another cheaper strap. You get pretty decent ones for Rs.250-350 ($6-8) and besides, its an old Fossil, its not like he plans to sell it in the future and is worried that the absence of the original strap will drastically lower the sale price.

Then there was this guy, who again had a Fossil with the crown missing. The guy behind the counter tells him that the price to replace it would be around Rs.850 ($18). Again, this is too much for the guy to justify and he asks for a cheaper alternative. "Well, if you want, I can just stick something on it to cover the hole (where the crown was), but you won't be able to change the time or the date. It will cost you just Rs.350 ($7-8)." This guy started thinking and I thought, surely he'll get the crown replaced, but no, he preferred to just let the watch be how it was (with the crown missing) and left. Oh! Did, I mention its monsoon here and rains everyday! Maybe he'll be back soon wondering why his watch has stopped working.

Another lady wanted to have pics of herself on a few watches to probably give away as gifts!

Then the worst kind, a guy asking for fake watches, in his case, fake Rolex Daytonas and Submariners. He also proudly claimed that his dad wears a fake Rolex and gifts them to his friends.

Now if these are the kind of customers I can expect to visit my watch shop, I'm not sure I'm too keen on the idea anymore!

New sales corner

We now have a new 'Sales Section' here at IWB where we'll be selling mostly HMTs and some of our pre-owned watches. Feel free to take a look. Link is on the right!

Incoming Poljot Strela

When I came back to work from lunch, I was informed by the security guard that a parcel was waiting for me. My Strela had made it's way from Germany to my office, in Mumbai, in just 5 days! Fantastic time, considering the shipping was free!

Here are some un-boxing pics:

Well packaged :)

It came with a stock black leather strap, but the quality wasn't to my liking, so I swapped it with a brown one from my old Lorus.
This Strela was a re-issue of the watch worn by Alexei Leonov during the first ever space walk on 18th March, 1965. It has the proven Poljot 3133 caliber, which replaced the old 3017 caliber, present on the original watch.
As you can see, this is a limited edition series, with mine being no 93/500 :)
The quality of the dial took me by surprise. I've heard stories of poor quality control on Poljot watches, but I have to say, the dial seems really well built. The case is 38mm across, which is the perfect dress watch size for me.


The literature that came with it mentioned that the accuracy is about -10 to +20 sec a day, but I'll only be able to comment on that once it's spend some time on the wrist.
It's sad that Poljot is no longer manufacturing watches, but there are still plenty of new old stocks out there to keep watch enthusiasts like me happy.
For more info on Poljot, here's a link to their wiki page.

Dissapointing trip in quest for some HMT watches

A fellow member on a watch forum wondered if I could help him find three HMT watches - a black Kohinoor, a white Sona and a white 'art deco' Janta. The Sona wasn't a problem as I already have a BNIB lying around, so I thought I'll visit a small watch shop from where I've purchased a couple of HMTs before. Its normally the smaller shops that stock HMT watches as the others don't bother stocking anything below the usual Titan, Citizen and other quartz ones.

I got there and the guy instantly recognized me. I asked him for the watches and he started looking for them. He had a few HMTs lying around and I was expecting the Kohinoor to be available easily, but there was none to be found. At least he assured me that he would definitely manage to get me one in a day or two, however he mentioned that the prices have gone up for these manual HMTs by about Rs.80-90 ($2 USD). I'm not sure if he was really being honest or just trying to pull a fast one at me. Regardless, I told him to get one for me and left to check out a few other shops nearby.

I checked out 5 more shops, but none of them had any HMTs. They all told me that the company no longer makes these manual watches and besides, not many people buy them. This was the second time I was told this. Most people really don't care for these mechanical movements anymore and just go for quartz which means bad news for the company and us watch lovers. Its sad knowing that it isn't going to be very long before they completely disappear from the shelves.

So unfortunately, I couldn't find what I was looking for, but I did see a few el cheapo TAG Heuer, Rolex knock offs or some might call them homages (as the names were different).

Pyrolume got spotted

This is a first - I was stopped at a red light, when I heard a voice say "Excuse me!". I didn't react much until I heard another 'Excuse me!'. I looked at the vehicle besides me and there were two girls in there -
Girls (together) - Wow!! Which watch is that??
Me - Pyrolume
Girls - What??
Me - Pyrolume - P-Y-R-O-L-U-M-E
Girls - WOW!! So Cool!!!
Girls - Where can we get one??
Me - Search for it on Ebay
Girls - Can we find it in Google search??
Me - Sure!
Girls - Thank you so much!
Me - Cheers! :)

From Russia with love! (on the way)

Well, it's being sent via Germany, but I'm sure you get the drift :p
It's been quite a while since I got a new watch, and even though I promised myself to hold out until I save up for a grail, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. You'll know why when I get it!
(thanks to Russ from Russ/Russian Watches for all the info on it!)
I'm so excited!! (Just hope they aren't any hassles with the customs department)

Hello Google 2

Woohoo!!! We are finally on the top! Just a few days ago me and Bio were wondering how long it would be before we can see this blog as the first result in Google search for "India watch blog'. Never realized the day would come so soon!! :D