Timely fashion on a time frame

Rameez Sattar brings home luxury watches, and stresses on the significance of owning one.

KARACHI:

Rameez Sattar, CEO of Sonraj Group, Pakistan, has a passion for watches. Travelling back in time, he recalls visiting Switzerland with his father Abdul Sattar to discover new watch brands in the thriving European market. His father, he claims, was the first to introduce Rado in Pakistan, way back in the 1970s.

Rameez’s latest venture is Movements, a store which opened at Dolmen Clifton Mall, features more than eight exclusive watch brands under its banner — allowing Pakistanis to flavour the European brands. These include Hamilton, Balmain, Police, Swiss Military and Certina amongst others.



The younger Sattar who also own another watch store, Collectibles, says, “When you get your very first salary you want to use it on a luxury item. Sadly in Pakistan, we lack the retail image for watches. Hardly anyone is involved into buying expensive items. So Collectibles is right now serving a niche market. I wish to expand my client base and hence launched Movements, which is located right next door and will cater to the masses.”

Sattar delves further into the subject saying, “Be it Hollywood super stars or a Bollywood’s most famous people, they are some way or the other involved with a luxury brands such as timeless watches. Even,  cricketers world over are involved as ambassadors for an international brand. We lack that in Pakistan”. He believes that local heroes are not given the opportunity and are not exposed to this market, which is something he plans on doing.



Helping Sattar, Mohammad Siddiq Siddiqui, who looks after Pakistan’s only technical watch-making institute called Pakistan-Swiss Horological Training Centre located in the SITE area of Karachi, churns out at least 15 watch makers each year from the institute. This institute was formed by the help of the Swiss government several years ago.

“There used to be a time, when many Pakistani watch-makers used give their watch-making expertise to the Gulf States in the Middle East, but sadly not anymore,” says Siddiqui.



He terms the 1970s as a decade that saw increasing demand of local watch-makers abroad. This idyllic art of making watches came to the sub continent during the British Raj and eventually Kolkata in India became the centre of watch making in pre-partition India.

“Watch-making is an art. It requires high precision. It’s a small piece you wear on your wrist but it’s very important. A simple watch has 150 different parts and as many 40 people are associated with creating a single watch,” says Siddiqui.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2014.

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