Return of
the Curve.

A factory in Bangalore began producing India's first domestically manufactured wristwatches. The Janata. The Pilot. The Sona. Watches that would sit on the wrists of India's first generation of self-made men.

Every single one of those watches had two things: a curved dial and a domed crystal.

Not because they were luxury features. Because in the 1960s, that's simply how a proper watch was made. The dial curved because a curved surface catches light from every angle. The crystal domed because when you looked at time, you were supposed to look into something, not at something.

Your grandfather knew this. He probably owned one. Bought with one of his earliest salaries. That watch — with its curved dial and domed glass — sat on his wrist through every important day of his life.

In 1975, the quartz crisis devastated the global watch industry. Two-thirds of Swiss watchmaking jobs vanished overnight. The survivors did what survivors do — they cut everything that cost more than it needed to.

The first thing they cut was the curve.

Curved dials require precision tooling. Domed crystals require exacting tolerances. Both cost more. Both take longer. So the industry flattened the dial. Flattened the crystal. Moved the seconds hand to the centre where it could sweep in big, cheap, dramatic circles.

For the next 50 years, if you wanted a watch with a curved dial and a domed crystal — the way your grandfather had it — you had to pay ₹1 lakh. ₹2 lakhs. ₹5 lakhs. The curve wasn't gone. It was gatekept.