Most homecomings involve a welcome handshake at the door followed by a little chinwag about how the place looks the same dripping with nostalgia or, else, how it feels entirely new as if looking towards the future, and then one is escorted to a space for photo ops followed by drinks, more hellos, and photo ops encore. Kapoor Watch Co. played it differently – their homecoming involved 8,000 square feet, three floors, a dozen of Switzerland’s finest names, and a guest list that would make even the paparazzi reach out for smelling salts.
The address is D-10, South Extension II. The same market place where, in 1967, D.S. Kapoor set up a modest watch-servicing workshop, just in time as Delhi was responding to the first calls of luxury and watches were becoming an object of desire rather than a mere tool strapped to a working man’s wrist. Nearly six decades on, the house has returned to that same address, reimagined as its new flagship.
As one walks in, the first thing that strikes is the scale of it all; it tells you this is no ordinary refit. Twelve brands have their own dedicated counters: Rolex, Tudor, Cartier, Bvlgari, Piaget, IWC Schaffhausen, Breitling, TAG Heuer, Longines, Franck Muller, Rado and Hublot. There is an experiential client lounge for those who prefer to deliberate sitting down, to take their time admiring and understanding their potential purchase, to spend more time with the piece to get a better idea. When buying a watch, this is most relevant and much sought after a sanctuary.
But the floor that tells the real story is the second. Here sits Kapoor Time Crafter, possibly India’s largest integrated watch service facility, along with an in-house school training the next generation of watchmakers. It is dust-free, temperature-controlled and moisture-free, with zones for everything from quick strap adjustments to full overhauls, and a dedicated Rolex workshop.
For a house that began by repairing watches and now has built its grandest showroom on top of its workbench, this is truly a mark of achievement established over time and solely with hard work, consistency and care. And a homecoming of this size needed a proper party. Hence, Hours & Icons: a three-day watch weekend, from 23rd to 25th October, 2026, of launches, India-only editions, visiting watchmaking royalty and a good deal of wrist-gazing.
Curtain-raiser: Franck Muller, 21st October
Every good festival needs an overture, and this one came two days early, a short drive away at DLF Emporio. Franck Muller, the house that taught the world that time could be told with a sense of sass, chose a decidedly more devotional register. It unveiled the Vanguard Ram Lalla Limited Edition, inspired by the childhood years of Lord Ram.
The edition is limited to 108 pieces and anyone who has held a mala knows the number is no accident. In a category where limited editions are often numbered by marketing whim, here was one numbered by faith and being launched during this period of Diwali festivities and the store re-launch couldn’t have been better, well, timed.
The unveiling was led by Erol Baliyan, CEO of Franck Muller for the region, alongside the celebrated sitarist Rishab Rikhiram Sharma. A sitar is a fitting partner for a watch: both demand patience, precision and an ear for timing. The evening set the tone for what followed: watches made with India in mind, not merely shipped to it.
Day 1, 23rd October: a flag on the dial, a maison in the North
The flagship’s doors opened properly on Thursday, and TAG Heuer had the honour of starting on the pole position. Fitting, really: a brand built on racing would know how to get things revved up and buzzing.
The launch was the Carrera India Edition, limited to 250 pieces and presented by Guillaume Boilot, Managing Director of TAG Heuer for the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and India, alongside actor Ibrahim Ali Khan.
The watch itself is a Carrera Day-Date, one of the brand’s global bestsellers, but what has been reworked is the dial – it now carries 21 Indian languages along with the Union’s two official languages, with the national flag as its central motif – green dial, white date window and orange hands. Several regions, one country, one watch, as Boilot put it. This is TAG’s most sincere ode to India and marks more than 25 years of partnership between TAG Heuer and Kapoor Watch Co.
And mind you, this wasn’t a rush job of simply sticking a new dial on an old model. Boilot says the project took nearly two years. Underneath sits the TH31-02 automatic calibre with an 80-hour power reserve, which means you can take it off on Friday evening and it will still be running on Monday.
The same evening belonged to Piaget, and it was a significant one. The maison made its exclusive arrival in North India through Kapoor Watch Co., with Managing Director Pétronille de Parseval and brand friend, Ananya Panday, doing the honours.
For a house synonymous with ultra-thin movements and jewellery that tells time, the South Extension flagship is a natural home. Delhi’s collectors can now avoid the boarding queues to simply check out a Piaget creation, a drive down the road will suffice.
Day 2, 24th October: a watch for the house, and a designer in town
Friday opened with a birthday present, of sorts. Breitling introduced the Superocean Heritage Kapoor Watch Co. Edition, limited to 59 pieces to mark the retailer’s anniversary and powered by the in-house Caliber B31.
The Superocean Heritage is one of the more handsome tool watches around, all clean lines and that distinctive mesh-bracelet heritage making it a diver that isn’t out of its depth even in a cigar lounge. Fifty-nine pieces is a really limited run, and that is rather the point; retailers usually sell watches to mark other people’s anniversaries; it is a special privilege (and a heartwarming honour) to have a watchmaker commemorate yours.
The evening, however, belonged to Bvlgari, and it was a very different affair. The Roman house hosted an evening dedicated to its high complications and jewellery watches, the two disciplines which it has seamlessly brought together and also where it has quietly rewritten the rulebook over the past decade.
The house was represented by Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bvlgari’s Product Creation Executive Director, the man behind their fabled Octo,and other senior members of Bvlgari’s global watch leadership. Everyone wanted to listen to Stigliani speak and considering how long it took to block his time (as also to coordinate it with this event here at Kapoor Watch Co.),, it was a worthwhile evening for every collector and enthusiast in town who finally got to ask the designer himself why a watch looks the way it does. For the curious, that is better than any launch.
Day 3, 25th October: class in session, then Cartier
Saturday began with homework, the enjoyable kind: Longines ran a series of masterclasses for collectors, working through complications from its Master Collection.
It was a welcome change of pace from the activities of the previous two days. If a launch exhibits a watch, a masterclass explains how it works. For a house with nearly two centuries of watchmaking behind it, pedagogy comes standard. And for a room full of collectors, there are few better ways to spend a Saturday than finding out what a moonphase is actually doing.
The last word, as it so often does in matters of style, went to Cartier. The maison closed Hours & Icons with an evening presenting its newest Roadster collection.
It was a well-judged finale. Cartier is the house that made shapes so iconic that nobody seemed to bother with the movement within. They made the form the whole point of a watch, and the Roadster brings that design-first thinking to something sportier. After three days of limited editions, complications and national flags, ending on pure design felt like a comforting warm and gooey dessert after a very long, very good meal.
The room, and what comes next
A festival is only as good as the people participating in it, and Hours & Icons drew a remarkably varied crowd. There were serious collectors, the kind who can tell you a calibre number before the brand name. There were old clients, some of whom have been walking through that South Extension door for generations, since it led to a repair bench. And let’s not forget the celebrities, designers and fashion faces from many walks of life, including Ibrahim Ali Khan, Ananya Panday and Rishab Rikhiram Sharma.
That mix says something about where Indian watch buying is headed. Pratiek Kapoor, Director at Kapoor Watch Co., points out that the core buyer used to be between 40 and 50; today the sweet spot is 25 to 40. These younger buyers aren’t so easily gobsmacked by a launch, they don’t swoon over legacy brands simply because they exist. Instead, they read widely, swap notes and expect brands to engage with them, not just sell to them.
With the demographic, tastes are shifting too. While the appetite for sporty pieces endures, Kapoor sees a growing pull towards elegant and timeless classics: pieces that move segue as easily from boardroom to dinner salon as the wearer.
These thoughts were resonated and noticed by the visiting watch dignitaries too TAG Heuer’s Boilot said Indian collectors’ knowledge and eagerness to learn are remarkable, and that they look beyond the logo. Coming from someone who interacts with the most serious and fervid of collectors around the globe, that is no small compliment.
Back to our homecoming 3-day fiesta, to sum things up, three of the launches were made for India or for Kapoor Watch Co., two of the brands chose to teach rather than simply sell, and the whole thing happened with much love and patronage from the most eligible minds and wallets of the city.
Hours & Icons was a standout event, not just as one commemorating the homecoming of Kapoor Watch Co., but also as a luxury platform showcase at a national level, and one wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a permanent fixture on India’s luxury calendar. Given the success of this first edition, it would be wise to block the dates now. As any watch lover will tell you, it is all about timing.
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