TIME AFTER TIME

A spiritual approach to watches resulting from a collecting journey that's more than 40 years long. We speak to Bengaluru-based collector TC Sajit, about what fuels this passion.

- Preetika Mathew

TC Sajit's favourite story about watches is from when he was a young officer working for the Intelligence Wing of the Indian Customs in 1992. A few months into the job, he was assigned to a team tasked with seizing contraband on a suspected boat. "As soon as we boarded the boat, the vessel was blown up," recalls Sajit, who leapt into the water but hung on to the pilot ladder of the boat. He was subsequently rescued, but not before the perpetrators were apprehended.

At the time, Sajit had on his wrist the Titan that he had inherited from his father, who had been gifted the watch just a year before, when he retired from Central Government Service. Considering it nothing less than a lucky charm, Sajit says "to me, there is no greater protection or bigger memorabilia." The Bangalore-based HR expert and collector's journey with watches has many such poignant moments.

Like how in 2007 he was able to gift an Omega Seamaster to his father after often hearing him talk about the poster that hung on the Omega boutique front he passed on his way to work, which declared 'One day you'll own one'; or the Citizen Eco-Drive World Time that he hunted for almost a decade and eventually purchased online from a seller in Japan. Sajit has always viewed watches through an emotional lens, and that has naturally translated to what and how he collects.