Akriti Madan was always the girl with the coolest watches. Growing up, she owned several colourful, cutesy Flik Flaks—those Care Bear-coloured Swiss children’s watches from the Swatch Group. “I would get many of the new Swatch watches that were released back then,” says Madan, for whom words like ‘chronometer’ and ‘guilloche’ are part of regular dinner-table conversation. The Delhi-based collector grew up surrounded by the watches on display at her family’s 75-year-old watch boutique and Connaught Place icon, Johnson & Co.
“I wanted this rose watch [by Swatch] that, quite literally, smelled of roses. It launched around the time the movie Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000) came out. Shah Rukh Khan was promoting that watch, and of course I got it,” says 34-year-old Madan. Her collection has only grown from there. And it’s a roll call of what watch collectors will call grail watches—rare, high-value, or very meaningful.
Memory keepers
“Every watch I own has been a gift from my parents, and each watch holds a memory,” says Madan, who is the third generation to join the family business. “Working for Johnson & Co wasn’t my initial plan. I wanted to pave my own path. So, after I was done with my Master’s from Cass Business School [now Bayes Business School] in the UK, I spent two and a half years working with Ernst & Young in Delhi. I then co-founded my own digital marketing business, and Johnson [& Co] was our client, obviously,” she says. It was in 2018 that she finally began working alongside her father, Anil Madan, and brother Ankit. “I have realised that this is exactly where I want to be,” says Madan, who now heads marketing and communications, promoting some of the world’s most iconic brands, from Blancpain, Bulgari and Breguet to Hublot and TAG Heuer.
Her first big-girl watch, a 16th-birthday present, was a slim Chopard La Strada. With its unique elongated rectangular dial, the watch is a tribute to the feminist film of the same name by legendary Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. Now discontinued, the collector’s piece is only available on the secondary market and with auctioneers such as Sotheby’s. Madan hopes to pass hers on to a daughter.
Madan’s taste now leans towards the bigger, some would say ‘masculine’, timepieces. There is a gorgeous Master Compressor by grail brand Jaeger-LeCoultre. “This was my second watch. I got it when I topped my class at Delhi University,” she says. The now discontinued chronograph, another collector’s piece, has a substantial 37 mm case, and Madan prefers wearing it to work, especially since she switched the strap from casual red to classic black. “I’m not a fan of small dials, and don’t believe that the more masculine-looking watches are just for men. Today, brands are making gender-neutral watches, because there is a demand from women watch collectors. As long as you can carry off a watch, it shouldn’t matter,” she adds, pointing to the fact that she also owns a 41mm Hublot chronograph (a gift when she completed grad school) with a white rubber strap. “I like to wear things that are chill and comfortable. The Hublot goes well with my personal style. In fact, I wear it with Indian outfits quite often,” she adds.
The other large timepiece she loves wearing is a 41mm Breguet Marine, which she borrows from her husband’s watch box. It was a wedding present from her parents. “My husband doesn’t like wearing anything on his wrist. But there was no way my parents would not give him a watch. So, I picked the Marine, because it’s just the right size for my wrist. While my husband wears it on special occasions, I wear it to lunch,” says Madan with a laugh.
