Unending Passion

Kerala-based orthopaedic surgeon Vijay Jayan has more than 1,000 watches in his collection, nearly 500 of them G-Shocks. We stepped inside his watch wardrobe...

- Chitra Lohani Saharan

It is not uncommon for a watch collector to have several boxes, sometimes custom-made ones, to house their collection. What is uncommon is a custom-made watch wardrobe. That's exactly what Vijay Jayan has for his timepieces. He has built it so that he could look at all of his watches at once and "also stare at them for hours," says the Thrissur-based orthopaedic surgeon. It currently stores over 1,000 watches, about 40 per cent of which are G-Shocks, and the rest spread over brands like Casio, Seiko, Citizen, HMT, Timex, and different vintage models. "To be honest, I haven't counted them entirely. I started a count last year, and stopped after 1,000," says Jayan with a laugh.

He started collecting when he was in his late 20s, once he had finished his medical studies and could invest in something that had always held a fascination. "Watches have always been a part of me. I hardly ever take my watches off, even if I'm sleeping or bathing. It's been a part of me ever since I can remember. The moment I take off my watch, it feels like my wrist is really bare. It's for that purpose that I thought G-Shock was best," says the third-generation doctor. "It lasts forever. You can bash it up however you like, and the time is still accurate," he adds, recalling the story of how the G-Shock was created in the 1980s by Kikuo Ibe (read Ibe's interview on Pg 70).