Chaos Continues To Be The Master Of The Game

Yours truly being a hands-on fellow.


The man in white is John.


How do you like the result of our joint efforts?


Watch enthousiast everywhere share their passion.




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The red dials are the favourites in India




Didn't Eve do a splendid job with the little means she had?



The blue dials were as much admired as the new yellow ones.



This morning we came at 08.00 am local time as agreed with the contractor. Just to discover that not much had progressed overnight and the chaos in the entire hall was not king but ceasar of the fair.

So I had to start 'yelling' at people and I assembled a team from various other stands that were also half finished. It is highly unusal in India that people get kicked in their behinds verbally and above all that the owner of a booth starts to work alongside the manual labourers. This was what finally did the trick. They all started to pant and sweat. The booth was done in exactly 1 hour's time! And you bet the labourers were proud of their feat.

John, the driver I am provided with here in Bangalore by the courtesy of the Hotel St. Marks told me that he never has seen such a swift action of his fellow countrymen and will most likely never see it again. John was vital in the operation because he translated for me as many workers spoke Hindi or Urdu only. So thanks a lot John for your never tiring help.

Eve did a splendid job in decorating the booth whilst the cleaning got under way. And believe it or not at 10.30 am we were the only booth really ready to roll! The architect in charge of the booth of Titan's, the number one in India came over and wanted to know the secret of my getting the 'lazy' people to work at the speed of sound like he said. Well, I lent him some of 'my' crew free of charge and they performed a kind of second miracle there as well. This helped a lot as we are neighbours at the fair.

Eve took no time to work miracles and the Minister of Planning of the Indian Union, Mr. Shri M.V. Rajasekhar who opened the show was taken in awe by the decoration and inquired who did it! Mihir Kharod, the organiser of the show proudly introduced Eve and myself to the Minister. He stayed a full ten minutes at our booth and his retinue had to admire every single watch he wanted me to explain to him.

We had fun all day long. Our watches slowly catch on in India. People come and go and they inquire about possibilities of purchasing a watch. The security chief of the fair who has his 'office' just next to us estimated that we had some 15,000 people at our booth over the day.

From the Minister of Planning I learned a few interesting facts about the Indian market that I should like to share with you all.

The Indian market is good for some 35,000,0000 to 38,000,000 watches per year. That is counting the formal sector and part of the informal one only. The entire informal sector i.e. watches smuggeld in from other places and other 'easy' routes brings in some 25,000,000 pieces every year. This huge informal market is the big headache of the trade as well as of the government. And all these impressive figures lead to one thing: approx. 12% of the population possesses a watch! There is thus room to grow.

Over the course of the first day we identified and had early talks with three potential distributors. Thanks Mihir Kharod for helping so much. You are a human dynamo and the true king of the Indian watch industry.

The fair opens every morning at 10.00 am. From 10.00 am to 2.30 pm the access is strictly reserved for professionals. Some of them having travelled days just to attend this fair! And all of them pass to salute Mihir Kharod. From 3.00 pm to 7.30 pm the public is admitted alongside the pros. At times I had to give 'lectures' about watch technology to more than 30 people who were at the same time at our booth.

It's now again way past midnight and we have just got back from a reception organised by two Indian watch manufacturers. It is heartwarming how all of them have wellcomed us amongst them. Like Mr. Desai, the former Chairman and the man behind the success of Titan Watches said: "We (you) are now part of the Indian watch family."

Chaos that continued in the morning has given way to interesting friendships and a camraderie that I have never seen in my beloved industry before.

Chaos Reigning Supreme

This very morning we arrived at the fairground to discover that everything just looked more or less like we have left it yesterday! The truck transporting the glass panes and the display cases had gone astray and smashed all the glasses in the process! Raju Agarwal, the manager in charge of our booth supplier Meroform, was desperately calling local glass merchants to get new panes and shelfs cut and supplied. They are promised by tomorrow morning 8.00 am! That is two hours before the show opens its doors and our booth is right at the entrance of the show.

Having become a master in India belief in fate, we decided to call it a day and call on some watch stores in town to see what they look like. A list we got from Mihrod got us going and John sped into town full throttle.

My oh My, these stores come in every shape and color. The ones dedicated to a single brand being the most refined ones. Timex India is a much liked brand here. Their stores all look more or less the same. The idea of the his-and-her watch originated in India. It was launched by the Swiss RADO. And till this day, offering a his-and-her set to the groom and bride is what all Indians aspire too.

The next store was the most brilliant one. Western Watch Company. Getting your belt sized whilst you select your new sunglasses and get the battery of your quartz watch changed in one go that is what many stores here excel in. And yes, 99.9% of the market are quartz movements. They symbolise modern western technology. Even the higher end brands come mostly with quartz movements over here. So we did right to develop a quartz collection just for India.

Number three we visited had a nice change of theme. Instead of belts they are into glasses.

Indians like clocks very much. In nearly every home you find at least one or two of them. Mostly very ornate ones. And of course all of them with a quartz movement.

Tonight is the first cocktail reception of the fair taking place. We have to groom ourselves as it is a formal affair. And yes, there is a pecuiliar Indian twist to the reception. We shall end up at 8.30 pm at the fair where all the stands are still empty! Except Titan's that is. They are headquartered here in Bangalore and have their own travelling booth stored here.

Bangalore - What A Change

After an ardous journey we have arrived late last night at Bangalore.

What a change to well-run and well-ordered Europe or the USA at that. The traffic is a nightmare in its own right. Honking the horn all the time passes for brakeing and taking your fellow road-users' wishes and aims into account. Hundreds of motorbikes mingle with cars and the ubiquitous Autoriksha, the towns three-wheeler taxi. From John our driver who had picked us up at Bangalore airport we learned that there are more than 100,000 of this fume-belching contraptions on the congested roads of Bangalore.

Late last night we boarded one and went shopping for clothes for Eve. Nothing special as women go. Sarees and all the India cloths women seem to like all over the globe. It was fun and inexpensive to be driven around town in the Autoriksha. Less fun buying all this silk stuff though. I am not good at shopping.

Today, we had our day off so to speak. We hired John and went about town. Temples, Christian churches and Mosques, Palaces and the famous Bangalore Botanical Garden were the topics of the day.

Then it was down to the pavillions. To check on progess of our booth. What a nightmare. But Mihrod, that's the gentlement shown in the picture with Eve and myself sitting in chairs outside the venue and the organiser of the fair is convinced that we will be able to start decorating our booth tomorrow Wedensday by 10.30 am. If the 72 watches that we plan to show arrive on time that is. Today, they were still held up in customs where they have been for the last 10 days already. We shall see. Hemal, Mihrod's son is of the opinion that everything will go just fine. He just shrugged his shoulders when he got off the phone and said one word only in his genuine Oxford-English: India!

More to follow as they say .......

The First Leg To Dubai And Shopping

Well, after a bumpy flight of which I have not seen very much since I was doozing all the way, we reached Dubai International Airport on time.

The plane was left way off the terminal to park. This brought the added value that we were taken by bus on a tour of the new concourse free of charge! A sprawling new airport will rise in no time. And imagine it will be the smaller one of the two airports that are in the process of being built. Jebel Ali Airport some 30 kms outside of Dubai will be the big one. Built for tourists only.

Dubai is a shopper's paradise. Every year the hold the Dubai Shopping Festival a bonanza for the shop keepers as well as for the compulsive (mostly women) shoppers from around the globe. The place is humming and brimming with bargains galore.

But, it was not to be for Eve this time. We are stuck at the airport in the Emirates Business Lounge and Eve's confined to shopping inside the old terminal.

Shopping here means entering a raffle. Luxury cars like the Mercedes-Benz 600 convertible or the Harley-Davidson are to be had.

Watches are of course everywhere. All the big brands are here as well as some special ones confined to the region only. Cruiser, Westar, Police and many others fight for your credit limit. And the fight is really a hard one. Sunglasses are even more important than watches over here.
And know the plam trees are fake ones and looking the real thing.

What is cumbersome is that we are unable to upload pictures from here. It seems as if they like to control the data too much here in the lounge.

January 26, 2008 - 24 hours to countdown

Another 24 hours to go and we shall be sitting on the plane to my beloved Dubai. However, it shall be a stop-over only this time. Just enough time to take a shower when we get there and hop on to another Emirates flight to Bangalore in India where the trade fair will take place from January 31 to February 3, 2008.

100,000 people visit the show that is held every other year! Never ever did we show our watches at such a large venue. We prepared a special collection for India and I am anxious to learn if the watches have arrived on time. We had to send them to India already a week ago.

How will the Indians like our watches? My customers and friends in the Middle East tell me that we will do more than just fine. Mihir Kharod and his son Hemal who own and run Tradepost, Asia's leading monthly exclusively devoted to the watch & clock trade and industry out of their Mumbai offices praised our collection highly back in September when we first met. Matter of fact, it is thanks to Mr. Mihir Kharod's encouragement and zest for his native India that I decided to exhibit at the fair in India.

Bangalore, we are on our way.......