Timeless time pieces

Amarjot Kaur

While luxury watches are receiving tough competition from smart watches, which besides telling the time perform every possible function that a phone can, they don’t rattle Laurent Lecamp, the executive vice-president, sales, Carl F Bucherer. 

“Yes, smart watches may have many features, from keeping a count on your calories to the number of steps you’ve walked, they’ll fade away with time, just like technology. They’ll become obsolete! This time piece here is a timeless work of art and it’s a classic,” he says.

Fresh off the shelf, the newly launched five models of Carl F Bucherer watches are brought to the discussion table at Ethos, a luxury watch store in Elante. Laurent calls these watches ‘time pieces’ and as they are laid neatly on a leather-cushioned demonstration plate, he tells what makes them so special. 

“They are made by Switzerland’s last family that owns an independent watch company, called Carl F Bucherer. The company is run by the original family’s third generation, with Jörg G. Bucherer serving as chairman of the board,” he informs.

The watch models of Carl F. Bucherer can be distinguished by certain functions, including the chronograph, flyback, tachymeter, tourbillion, and indicators or displays. “The average price of these time pieces is somewhere between Rs 3 and 18 lakh and we have seen a growth of 20 per cent in the watch industry in India, so I am sure this one will sell like hot cakes,” Laurent says affirmatively.

He looks at luxury watches as an investment. “Like Indian women are often gifted gold jewellery on their wedding, as an investment which they can use later, these watches too can be considered as an investment; made of gold and steel, they have a resale value,” he says. 

As he briefs  on the features of these time pieces, he shares that most of them are rotor-operated. “These rotors move along with your hand movements and they work with kinetic energy. That’s what makes them special. Also, these watches are handcrafted,” he says.