Gaurav Mehta, Founder and CEO of Jaipur Watch Company India’s first bespoke watch brand inspired by ‘Made in India’ campaign talks to Luxe Point India about his journey so far. The brand has been making waves as luxury watch brand since its inception.

Gaurav Mehta, Founder and CEO of Jaipur Watch Company

How did you start the Jaipur Watch Company? Considering India has not had any significant homegrown watch brands so as an independent watch-maker what are your thoughts.

Jaipur Watch Company started in 2013. Growing up, I was fascinated by ancient coins which spurred my hobby of coin collection. I collected a variety of coins ranging from various periods of the history of Indian coinage, which became an extensive collection over a period. While I was collecting ancient coins, I was also fuelling my love for watches. Having had a very deep connection with coins and watches, I decided to combine both the elements into a piece that was worthy of being an heirloom. Also, I always had a realization that India had limited expertise about fine watchmaking and the blend of all these thoughts and ideas led to the formation of the Jaipur Watch Company.

When we started, we faced tremendous challenges to find ancillary industries which could support manufacturing in India and with cumulative efforts of my team we have somehow managed to develop a lot of things in-house now making us an honest Made In India brand and not a brand which assembles / imports from China or elsewhere.

Indian market has been heavily dominated by Swiss brands when it comes to Luxury Watches. The Indian Watch market at present is approximated to be at a size of INR 10,000 Crore with a contribution of roughly 20% from International Brands. Our Journey is just 6 years old in this market, but from our experience, I can comment that the market has matured, there is space for newer brands and with the matured the audience there is certainly a liking and appreciation for Indian Fine Watches.

The Imperial II watch

How are you looking to change the watch industry in India? What are the major challenges in such high-end businesses?

We would want to take the ‘Make in India’ concept a notch higher. Jaipur Watch Company’s watches will not be the first watch for a client; they are bought by watch connoisseurs, people who are intrigued by a fine Indian Watch and people who have a heart for Indian History. We have clients who are looking for something personalized and one of a kind in the world – The Bespoke watches. Our watches have been welcomed by people all over the world, especially NRIs who can feel the great Indian connect in our pieces and the numismatists.

When it comes to Bespoke watches, Crafting every watch is a meticulous process, as we aimed to create collectibles and heirlooms connoting a story and the mastery of artistry. Creation of each watch is a combination of multiple steps/parts. The challenge we face is the lack of ancillary industries offering components for fine watches. Moreover, since the product we offer is unique and one of a kind, it requires extremely limited quantity but the superior quality of parts. Sourcing them at this quantity is an issue, thus we end up developing most of the products in-house, in order to create limited yet supreme quality products. Lack of quality infrastructure is a challenge that is a primary concern for domestic watchmakers.

Tell us something about your latest 3D printed watches?

Jaipur Watch Company is renowned for its creativity and this time we wanted to create another unique concept of which the Indian watch market was completely unaware. This watch is India’s first 3D printed watch. It is directly 3D printed in stainless steel. Covered by a sapphire crystal, the dial of the watch is 3D printed with motifs and numbers given a high polished surface. This watch is powered by a premium Japanese Miyota mechanical movement of 9015. Its belt is genuine high-quality hand-crafted leather. The outer dimension of the case is 40 mm and the thickness is 8mm.  The lugs of the watch are 20mm in size.

India's first 3D Printed watch

What are your future plans for the Jaipur Watch Company?

For the past year, we have had many technical developments. We have done a lot of R&D and have studied extensively about our growth plans and have realized that direct retail under brick and mortar is the way forward for us after being almost six years in business, so we are proceeding with the same.

Apart from the regular trunk shows in various cities, we are currently retailing via all Oberoi Tijori's across India. Jaipur Watch Company is now coming up with its Flagship store at Select City Walk in Delhi which will be inaugurated within the next couple of months. Also, using 3D printing gives the opportunity to work with a faster manufacturing process, and develop the product quite quickly. This manufacturing process allows creating on-demand designs. Customization, which has always been the forte of Jaipur Watch Company is now one of the main advantages exploited by us with 3D printing.

An antique watch from the brand