Column

Watches, unlike many modern inventions, are often made by hand. Of course the tiny bits and pieces that go into making a timepiece of any size work, could well be and perhaps are, machine made, but, the assembly of the tiny parts are a human responsibility.

Watchmakers live in a world that is smaller than the real... their days are spent looking into a universe that is made of tiny parts, nuts and screws and perfect wheels that mesh into each other and turn seamlessly... and in that universe they seek and often find their perfect moments of pure bliss.

When the seemingly indecipherable heap of tiny parts is finally put together to form not just a beautiful machine that will be hidden behind a face with numbers and hands on it, but a machine that brings meaning to what the face stands for, the creator knows his work is done.

However intricate and beautiful the look of a watch might be, however complicated and precious its form, it is the craftsman who owns the key to its continued value, for even a diamond-studded watch, if it will not keep proper time, is not worth the weight of its components.

There are a few watchmakers who have earned some reputation — in watchmaking circles, they are respected, perhaps revered, but by and large, they remain unsung, unknown, except, of course, for the anonymous picture in the brochure. And yet without them, an industry would collapse, a nation’s economy would flounder.

Handmade watches have found a new lease of life, suddenly, in the world of watches, old classics, including manually wound models are finding favour, and commanding prices that a quartz model or even an automatic can never demand.

Little wonder, as the industry pushes its boundaries and takes on even more challenging assignments, trying to create models that seem part of science fiction, that are precise to the point of literally counting one eighth of a second and losing not a nano second over moths, even years.

Little wonder too, that as the industry grows, billowing like a sail in the wind of the newfound interest worldwide in high performance watches that are unique in their various features, the demand for fine craftsmen far outstrips the supply.

Alas, this is not true of most crafts. The milliner, the master tailor, the shoemaker... crafts that have been handed down for generations — are dying out slowly around the world.

The world’s best hat-making nations have forgotten to create handmade hats, the shoemaker who fashions shoes with his hands is so rare as to be unaffordable.

All over the west, this is true. The Swiss watchmaker, is perhaps, a rare exception. Was it the fascination with the machine and its ability to create swiftly and tirelessly, what the human hand and eye took much longer to do, that devalued the worth of human artisans and the craftsman’s expertise?

Or was it that with changing lifestyles, and new trades to ply, the old crafts seemed boring and slow and inhibiting to the one who had mastered it?

In India, craftsmen have always been looked down upon. Unlettered and true to their craft, they have known and done little else. But the burgeoning job market, and the upwardly moving economy, has tempted younger generations to strive to belong to the rest of the world and to exchange their narrow lives for the wide open world of commerce and competition.

I have watched craftsmen at Delhi Haat work at their crafts, hammering fine silver wires into metal, or painting beauteous faces with vegetable dyes on paper and most of them have moaned that their sons refuse to ply their craft. They want to be babus instead.

And an entire industry that leans heavily on its embroiderers, its weavers, its embellishers and master cutters still thinks nothing of paying these wonderful craftsmen a pittance for their craft, while selling their creations for hundreds of thousands of rupees.

Even as the west is struggling to resurrect its lost arts and preserve the crafts it still holds as living, we are on the brink of losing most of the unique arts that make up the rich, varied, and wondrous fabric of our cultural heritage. India is a tapestry that is made up of its colour, its textures, its fabrics, and its crafts.

And unless we work to preserve the men and women who are the holders of these traditional riches they will disappear with their riches, leaving us a country bereft.

Email: ssaran@dnaindia.net