For Mumbai-based Karan Vaidya, the problem with most watches is not that they fail to tell time, but that they rarely have much to say about the people wearing them.
After a decade in the luxury watch business, Karan had become increasingly aware of how much of modern watchmaking is built around stories of diving, sailing, aviation, motorsport and exploration. These are compelling histories, but they do not necessarily reflect the experiences of the majority of Indian watch buyers. “No watches really tell Indian stories,” he says. “We wear sports watches that celebrate games that none of us grew up playing — diving, sailing, flying, which is available to 1% of 1% of India.”
Rain check from Arka
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That thought eventually became IST 1947, a new modern Indian watch brand that takes its name from 1 September 1947, a date the brand uses to represent independent India establishing its own time. Historically, Indian Standard Time itself predates Independence, having been introduced in 1906, so the brand’s reference to 1947 is better understood as a marker of the new nation’s relationship with a common national time rather than the origin of IST itself.
The distinction matters because through IST 1947, Karan’s argument is that the experience of time here is different from the neat progression suggested by the hands on a dial. “Five minutes could mean something totally different in three different contexts,” he says. “In India, time is flexible.”
Keeping Indian time
The Vaidya family has spent decades in India’s luxury jewellery and watch business, with Karan now representing its second generation. He grew up in Mumbai surrounded by watches through the family business, The House of Rose, founded and led by his father, Biren Vaidya. Karan later spent a decade working in the family’s luxury watch business, Rose The Watch Bar, where he became involved in developing limited editions with international houses including Bulgari, Franck Muller and Chopard. “I always wanted to do a little more,” he says. “When you work with an external brand, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can do.”
Golden hour
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The result is a brand whose design brief is straightforward. The watches have to be contemporary and desirable first, with their Indian references embedded in the details rather than pasted onto the dial as decoration. “I don’t want people to buy it because it’s Indian,” Karan says. “I want you to buy it because it’s cool. It just happens to be Indian.”
IST 1947 has launched with Arka, a five-watch collection inspired by the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha. The 13th-century temple represents the chariot of Surya, with 24 carved wheels arranged in 12 pairs. The wheels are also associated with timekeeping, with the design of the temple incorporating sundial principles.
Inside the box
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Arka translates that architecture into a small-seconds display inspired by the Konark wheel. The five watches interpret different moods of the day and the landscape, from powder blue and warm golden tones to deep midnight blue and the green associated with the monsoon. Each has a 38mm 316L stainless-steel case, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, a Miyota 1L45 quartz movement, 100-metre water resistance and a calf-leather, alligator-embossed strap. The collection’s custom Bregnagari numerals and Konark-inspired small seconds provide the more overt visual link to its source.
Two more collections will follow later in October. Vanya takes the familiar field watch and filters it through four Indian wildlife destinations, with watches inspired by places including Kaziranga and Ranthambore.
Vijay, meanwhile, turns five defining nights in Indian cricket into limited-edition watches, referencing the World Cup victories of 1983, 2007, 2011, 2024 and 2026. Each edition is limited to 100 pieces.
After hours
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There is no attempt to position IST 1947 as artisanal Swiss-style watchmaking. Karan is upfront that the brand is designed for the ₹10,000–₹20,000 market, with Arka currently priced at ₹9,999 and Vijay at ₹19,470. What he wants to bring to that segment is the sort of attention to detail consumers might normally associate with more expensive watches: individual serial numbers, a two-year digital warranty and packaging that tells the story behind each collection.
Karan believes the Indian consumer has changed, too. “Indians are not cheap,” he says. “Indians are value conscious.”
In a category that has spent decades building its mythology around other places and other histories, IST 1947 is making a fairly simple proposition: perhaps an Indian watch does not need to imitate anyone else’s idea of what a watch should be. It just needs to tell a story that feels like ours.
Published – October 09, 2026 04:02 pm IST
