)
However, one has to pay Rs 27 lakh and wait for four months to secure the luxury watch.
Swiss luxury watchmaker Century Time Gems Limited in association with Rodeo Drive Luxury Products, a Bangalore-based boutique for international brands, has launched what they term as the "world's first single sapphire Lord Venkateshwara edition wristwatch" here on Thursday.
Cased in sapphire and studded with 34 rubies, an equal number of emeralds and 13 diamonds, only 333 pieces of the metallic white dialled men's wristwatch, handcrafted in 18 carat red gold, will be available worldwide.
Explaining the four-month wait period for getting the watch after booking, the manufacturers say just to make one sapphire case it requires several days of superior craftsmanship, precision cutting and skillful polishing by hand using diamond-faced tools.
"Global Indian's will love this limited edition," Rodeo Drive managing director, Prithviraj Bagrecha, said, adding each watch would be individually numbered to turn it as an exceptional collector's item.
Century Time president and chief executive officer, Philip WA Klingenberg, is hopeful that the limited edition watches will help in spreading the company's brand.
But why did it choose Sri Venkateshwara? "We did not choose Venkateshwara, Lord Venkateshwara has chosen us through Prithviraj (of Rodeo Drive which imports Century products)," he said.
Of course, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is also associated with the launch. Every piece of the watch sold will contribute a "certain percentage" of the sale proceeds to Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for the Disabled (BIRRD), a charitable orthopaedic hospital in Tirupati run by the TTD.
Rodeo Drive marketing director, Gowtham Udayshankar, declined to quantify the contribution to be made to BIRRD. So also TTD executive officer, LV Subramanyam. "We do not have a business plan for this," he said.
Nevertheless, Subramanyam said the launch of the watches would pave the way for a number of other such partnerships. "We will certainly encourage more such partnerships," he said.
Replying to a query, he said TTD would be associated only with things that promote faith and that would not be derogatory to the Lord.
"We are not selling anybody's sentiment," he said dismissing the criticism about merchandising the image of Sri Venkateshwara.
