Inside India's only Rolex watchmaking school

Meet a new generation of globally competitive watchmakers bred in Bandra.

- PARTH CHARAN

After 40 minutes of braving peak traffic and being subject to Mumbai's favourite mode of communication—honking—the silence permeating Rolex’s watchmaking school in the Bandra Kurla Complex district washes over me like an ocean of calm. Unlike the constant pandemonium of newsrooms and conference halls that I’ve grown accustomed to, there is a stillness to the floor and its occupants that can feel almost disorienting at first. No white noise, just people in white coats toiling away with brows locked into a furrowed stance, monocles at the ready, and elbows placed over leather-wrapped arms that extend out of custom-built tables of wood and steel.

The sterile and controlled nature of the environment makes it apparent that this is a high-pressure, high-stakes operation that requires not just specialised training but a specialised form of education. Education that demands a level of precision matching that of a COSC-certified Rolex movement. All so that the smallest cogs, gear trains and levers are perfectly aligned to perform the sacred ritual of mechanical timekeeping. Something that’s been a highly treasured and fiercely gatekept secret for decades, but ever since 1989, when Rolex began taking in apprentices for its formal training programme, it has steadily ushered generations of aspiring horologists into the fold of professional watchmaking.