On any given day, people stop by IMG Finance Director Sharad Chandran’s office to ask him what time it is.
But they’re really not interested in knowing the time, per se, they’re interested in the particular timepiece he’s wearing.
Sharad, who has held Finance and Strategy roles in India, China and now Thailand, is an avid watch and clock collector – and self-taught on how to repair both.
“What started out as a collection of watches, grew into a deeper subject called horology where I started learning to repair and restore vintage mechanical clocks,” he said. “I have built a good collection over time and a good fan following in the process.”
Sharad estimates he owns upwards of 1,000 watches, most of which are at his family home in India. He brought several dozen watches with him to Bangkok and wears a different watch to work every day – much to the delight of coworkers, who often stop by to see what timepiece he is wearing that day.
He received his first watch – a Wilson winding watch – when he was 10. But his collection began in earnest in 2017, when he inherited his late grandfather’s Swiss made Westend Secundus watch from the early 1900s.
“This is my all-time favorite watch and the one that probably triggered my curiosity to learn more about antique mechanical watches,” Sharad said. “Then I started moving to a select themes as this is a vast ocean as a hobby and quite expensive too. I have now restricted my collection to vintage pocket watches, vintage digital watches, and forgotten mechanical watch brands, including those from countries that have now changed, such as the USSR and Czechoslovakia.
His favorite digital watch is a Casio F91W, famous for being used by former U.S. President Barack Obama and world champion F1 driver Michael Schumacher.
Among his clock collection, his most prized piece is a Seikosha pendulum clock made in Japan during WW2.
“It is similar to the one I saw in my maternal grandparents’ ancestral house when I was growing up,” Sharad said. “While that one was long lost, I managed to hunt down a similar one after many years and restored to its original beauty.”
Sharad credits his father with not just being his inspiration but instilling his love of all things mechanical.
“He is a mechanical engineer, who always loved to explore and learn. When I was a kid, he ensured that I got the first opportunity to repair anything that broke at home,” he said. “He always encouraged me and appreciated the spirit to learn new things and to never give up on anything. There is no age limit to learning and to share the learnings. If we have the spirit to never give up, there is no barrier that cannot be shattered.”
While there isn’t necessarily a correlation between his love of numbers at work and the numbers that tell time, there is another strong connection.
“The correlation that I see is between my love for automobiles and these time keeping devices,” Sharad said. “The symmetry, the beauty of the parts moving in unison is a spectacle. I love mechanically operated stuff, I thoroughly enjoyed every day witnessing the cars built in our plants when I was based in Chennai plant, and I derive the same pleasure when I look into the movements that run the watches and clocks.
“One thing I have learned on my life journey is that no one can motivate one better than oneself – it’s important to keep exploring new things. Being passionate about something outside of work is fulfilling and brings a lot of joy into your life.”
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