Time for service

AT ROLEX’S CORPORATE OFFICE on the first floor of N.M. Wadia Building on Mumbai’s M.G. Road, a technician in a white lab coat squints through a loupe at an assortment of rotors, balance wheels, hairsprings, and metallic gear trains. On an adjoining wall hangs an old black-and-white photograph of Jawaharlal Nehru and a handwritten letter to Rolex expressing appreciation for his watch. The office doubles as Rolex’s Mumbai service centre.

An entry-level Rolex has 140 moving pieces, a number that goes up significantly with the complexity of the watch. These parts are mostly interconnected and work in tandem, registering 86,400 seconds day after day. The balance wheel rim (a big, serrated wheel to which a whole lot of other parts are joined) will journey some 37,000 km over a five-year period. That’s as much as some cars travel. It’s these minute, precisely engineered parts that make premium mechanical watches such a paradox—they require looking after and are nowhere as consistently accurate as a quartz watch that sells for a thousandth the price. Yet, buyers are willing to pay a huge premium for them.

India is emerging as one of the most exciting markets for premium watch brands. According to the All India Federation of Horological Industries and consultancy KSA Technopak Advisors, nearly 200,000 premium watches were sold last year. This number is growing at 20% year on year (individual companies don’t disclose sales); plus there’s the grey market. Yasho Saboo, CEO of Ethos, a national premium watch retailer, says, in this segment prices begin at Rs 40,000 and can go past Rs 10 lakh. Think of it as a new asset class being created: Most premium watches increase in value over time, much like art. But given that the market is only just developing, few know that watches need to be devotedly looked after—and buying that watch is really just the beginning.

The companies that make them know only too well. Most technicians go through at least a couple years of training before they are allowed to touch an escapement, the heart of every timepiece. It determines adequate frequency, precision timekeeping, controls the rotation of wheels and the motion of the hands, and releases power in controlled bursts. Angelo Bonati, CEO of Officine Panerai, a high-end brand made famous by Sylvester Stallone, says the equipment used to service complicated watches with tourbillons is in many ways like “electrocardiograph machines that cost millions of dollars”. (A tourbillon is a movement that compensates for the effect of gravity by mounting components in a rotating cage within the watch.) He says it’s not enough to be able to get that kind of machinery. “You also need the doctors who can read what the different sensors are telling you,” says Bonati.

Compared to developed markets, India is lacking not just in service centres, but also in capabilities. That means watches are often sent abroad for maintenance, which is time consuming and expensive. For example, Jaeger-LeCoultre in London charges as much as £500 (Rs 44,010) to replace a direction marker on a push-button below the crown. At the same time, India’s humidity, heat, and dust wear out watches faster. So, how does one maintain an expensive watch?

There are some universal principles, such as removing moisture from the underside of the leather strap after use, or keeping timepieces away from cellphones being charged or anything that creates a magnetic field. Collectors, however, argue that given how expensive premium watches are, it’s best to go the extra mile. Edward Kong Lee, a Kolkata-based collector, who’s also a partner of Wing Sung, a leather tannery, draws a comparison between prints and original art. “You always look after the originals much more than the prints. After all, it’s about extending the life of an asset.” So, while pat-downs and dry storage are fine, Lee sticks adhesive paper tape made by industrial tape manufacturer ABRO on the underside of a strap: “It feels weird and isn’t exactly designed for that but it does the job.”

Harshbeena Zaveri, managing director of NRB Bearings, whose top pieces include a 1950s’ Patek Philippe Art Deco model in white gold, a 1931 Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, and a newer rose gold Patek Philippe perpetual calendar, says there are rules for watch servicing: You must first know how to shut it down. “Stopping a timepiece is not like stopping a car. It’s suspended animation because of the kinetic energy in the watch. You have to release that energy before servicing,” she says. Her tip: Don’t wear the watch for a couple of days to ensure that the power reserve is exhausted before it’s serviced.

Harshal Shah, CEO of Reliance Venture Asset Management, is a self-confessed watch fan who owns a red gold Hublot Big Bang, an Audemars Piguet Sachin Tendulkar limited edition, a limited edition Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921, a limited edition white gold and blue enamel Fabergé Carrée, and “a few Patek Philippes”. He says one of the most common mistakes people make is cold starting a watch: adjusting the day, date, or time when the watch hasn’t been used for a few days. Ideally, it should be wound or worn for a few hours (even showing the wrong time) before making adjustments. Shah says the additional kinetic energy of the coiled spring ensures that the time sets properly and readjusts the system of springs within the watch accurately. The coiled spring of the watch movement has a finite amount of potential energy, and watches consume a lot of energy jumping dates.

These aren’t idiosyncrasies but everyday rules that collectors swear by. Four years ago, Saffronart, an auction company, began selling old watches. Saboo of Ethos says in recent years, people have become more aware of investing in watches for the long term, the slowdown notwithstanding. What surprised him was that even a steel Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Scuba sold for $17,000 (Rs 9.39 lakh), some $1,300 more than its upper estimate. Time to treat watches as an asset (and not an expression of vanity), and look after them.