Malhar: Tribute watch for city-based collector out soon

Prashant Pandey was a watch connoisseur, who died of Covid-19 last year. His friends and family are dedicating this new model to his passion

The HMT Watch Collectors (HWC) group in Bengaluru will soon release a watch in memory of their founder Prashant Pandey, who died of Covid-19 last year. It will be called Malhar.

It was ideated by Prashant himself but the HWC group has gone many steps ahead to make it a perfect tribute for him. The backside of each watch will have an image of Prashant, and the bottom of the face will be printed with PP39 (a reference to Prashant Pandey who died at 39), among other details.

Prashant had worked on four more watch projects earlier for HWC, namely Janata, Kohinoor, Nakshatra, and a pocket watch. But Malhar was Prashant’s dream project, which got shelved because of the pandemic.

“He called it Malhar as he believed the monsoon lifts spirits and brings optimism and hope in one’s life. Rains make the surroundings beautiful,” Juhi Pandey, his wife, told Metrolife.

It is Juhi who takes care of Prashant’s collection now, which he had built over eight years and which comprised of more than 1,000 HMT watches. “The Malhar watch has already found customers across the world as Prashant was loved by many. He knew stories related to most HMT models, and even after the company shut down, he was still advocating for them,” she adds.

Design details

The watch is a result of consultations with Prashant’s watch collector friends. Besides Prashant’s image, one can find ‘P’ (in red) curled into the stem of the H, and the font of Malhar was chosen by Shubhangi, the couple’s daughter. “Every watch will come with a ‘Thank You’ note from me,” Juhi adds.

The watch has been designed at the Analogue Jewelled Watches and Instruments Network (Ajwain), a micro brand in Mumbai, which started five years ago. The Ajwain logo is embedded on the backside of the watch. The designing process started in September last year, a few months after Prashant passed away.

Vikram Narula, founder and chief executive of the company, met Prashant in 2016 when the HMT watch factory in Bengaluru was closed down. “I flew down to Bengaluru to buy some watches. A common friend introduced me to Prashant. He was an evangelist of HMT watches,” recalls Narula.

While most HMT watches measure around 35 mm, Malhar is “a proper man’s watch”, coming at a diameter of 40 mm, says Narula. “After a long time, a mechanical watch has been entirely manufactured in India. The deep-domed dials with applied indices, cases were all made in the country. The hands are sourced from Bengaluru,” he says.

Malhar will be available with three dials — silver, black, and tiffany blue. It will come with a full-grain Italian leather strap and has new HMT movements in it. “We have been receiving pre-bookings from USA, Canada, apart from across the world,” he adds. Malhar is slated for a launch by the end of April. Priced at Rs 9,000, you can place an order at ajwa.in

‘40% collectors from Bengaluru’

Vikram Narula says that Bengaluru has a significant chunk of watch collectors in India, “around 40 %”. “People know what they are buying, especially HMT watches,” he says.