Tucked away in the cluttered bylanes of Dadar is 85-year-old Vishnu Jairam Khandekar’s home. And what’s so special about that His modest 450-sq. feet flat is home to around 3,500 timepieces that he has collected over fifty years. Call it his passion or an obsession, this retired scientific officer from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre decided to make ‘time’ his business ever since he was thrashed up as a little boy for dismantling a timepiece that he couldn’t put back together. His shop in Dadar is called Khandekar Times where he repairs all kinds of clocks and watches with a care that almost borders on reverence.
A self-taught watch-repairer, Khandekar’s affair with clocks began at the age of 10, when his father brought home a timepiece. “He had to leave early for some work and he had borrowed a clock from a relative to set an alarm. Owning a timepiece back then was a rare thing, not many people had it. Before leaving for work he had asked me to return the clock on my way to school. I got inquisitive and started examining it.”
Since my father was an engineer, we had a toolbox at home. I decided to open the clock to see what lies hidden behind its two arms. I saw a plethora of wheels and small parts inside. I dismantled them and tried putting them back together but the clock just wouldn’t work. When my father found out, he lost his cool and I was badly thrashed,” reminisces the octogenarian with a smile. That reprimanding only served to amplify his interest in clocks.
Years later when he went to Ratnagiri for higher studies, he would stand for hours at the watch stalls in Bazarpeth, where clock repairers would bring their wares. Shifting to Pune broadened his horizons. “My introduction to the encyclopaedia changed my world. I would sit in the library for hours and study all the material that was available on clocks and watches. I have written three books so far on watch repairing,” he says.
While in Pune, word soon spread about his watch-repairing prowess and people would come to him to get their watches repaired. And if the parts were unavailable they would leave the watches behind. In fact, at times, if Khandekar really liked a piece, he’d tell them that the repair parts were unavailable, so they would leave the piece with him. And time was on his side for some years until in 1961 when the Panshet dam in Pune burst. “We lost our house in the floods and with that I lost over 500 timepieces. I also lost all my life’s savings but the biggest blow was losing my most prized timepieces.”
But he’s not a man to be defeated. He resumed his quest and built up his collection bit by bit to the massive mass of time it is today. A fascinating piece among his acquisition is a 450-year-old all-wood Verge Escapement, valued at '1 lakh today. It took him three-and-a-half years to acquire it. “The Escapement model is the heart of watches. Sanghavi Watch Company in CST had an escapement tool, which they told me, wasn’t for sale. I used to go there every Saturday and they would tell me repeatedly that it was not for sale. This went on for over three-and-a-half years till the owner finally called me and said, ‘Today I have decided to give this to you for free but on one condition - you will have to take Mauthe and Wehrle’s time pieces as gifts’,” he says.
Wherever he goes, Khandekar gets engrossed in the universe of hairsprings and flywheels. “I have travelled to Kashmir, Madras, Travancore, Goa, Rajasthan and some more places in India. I wouldn’t be interested in enjoying the snowfall in Kashmir but would be busy finding watches and clocks. Closer home, I found a lot of these watches in Bhendi Bazar as well,” says the man who is also a proud owner of a triple-dialled shadow clock and a one-handed German water clock.
For someone whose first love was clocks, his wife had to be someone who shared his interest. His wife Nalini Khandekar recalls with a smile, “When I got married to him, he had only one condition — I would have to learn the art of repairing watches —and I did that.” says Nalini.
Khandekar’s affair with watches goes beyond being a mere collector. He is also a teacher in watch making. And that happened almost by accident. “I was once repairing a watch at my place and a postman came to deliver a letter. He stood there observing me while I was at work. I noticed his presence and allowed him to stand there for a few minutes before shooing him away. And then he tells me that he wants to learn the art of watch-repairing, I told him to come home the next day and he was my first student,” he says.
In 1962, Khandekar was resolute about starting a training school for watchmakers. “I fought with the Maharashtra government’s technical board of education for many years to give recognition to this course in watch repairing. They did recognise the course and finally in 1982, I became the first person to teach this course. Over the years I have taught over 9,000 students and my biggest achievement was a student flying to Switzerland to work for Rolex.”
With digital clocks and cell phones taking over the market, the practice of owing watches is fading away, he feels. “No one repairs watches any longer. People are no longer interested. They don’t aspire to own watches because everything is available on the cell phone. The craze to own a watch and study the art no longer exists. I used to teach over 100 students at one time but today I have only two students. People are not willing to learn and that needs to change. Pydhonie and Bhendi Bazar used to be a hub, brimming with people who wanted buy watches. Today you will see only a few shops there,” Khandekar says. There was a time when he would exhibit his collections and one of the exhibitions was held at the insistence of Pu La Deshpande. Now space has become a constraint. So I open all the shelves in my house for two days, once a year and people come and see my collection. If people give me place to exhibit I’ll be more than willing. In fact, I want people visiting Mumbai to visit Khandekar’s watch collection even if that is the one thing they do in the city. I only want people to see these pieces and discover the magic of time,” he says. Over time, perhaps, they all will.
