Whats the time dude?
Generally Saturday mornings are for catching up on sleep or early morning shows at Gold Adlabs – getting up is the last thing on everyone’s mind!
But today was different! Everyone was up at around 11′ish – even Kartik (KK) came by (he’s going to be the newest member of D-25 group). And as always, the first thing to do while finishing up the morning chores was to check out the “Pune Times” section of the newspaper – and the thing that caught my attention were the number of “Flat 40%” sale advertisements! – John Players, Peter England, Woodland and what not!
So – Mahesh and I finally teamed up to check out the stuff at these outlets, specially John Players and Woodland – since they were the closest to our home (just 3 kms). Its been loooongggg since I went out shopping for clothes. The last time I remember buying clothes was almost a year ago – and that too from Pune’s bargain market – Fashion Street!
Apart from clothes, I was also missing my watch! Its been more than 3-4 months since both of my watches broke down, beyond repairs. Infact the more used one underwent many repair sessions before I finally decided that it was time to get a new one. And no replicas this time! Though there is nothing wrong with wearing a replica – its just that a “non-replica” has its own charm. – and price tag too! 
So, 5pm and we were out in the sun – on a shopping spree! Sun was incidently hotter than expected (I was wearing a red jacket which Rama gifted – thanks d00d). We started off with John Players outlet – and I must say, they have an excellent collection. With 40% off on all collection, it was a good deal. I bought two shirts – a blue checked on white and a white striped on brown for just INR 350 each – not a bad deal atall! Mahesh bought 3 shirts – all for gifting his friends. Next was Koutons outlet – and they had a whopping 50% + 40% off on all range. Mahesh got a nice fitting Blazer/Trousers for himself. I tried few things but then later thought otherwise. We also visited Lee, Reebok and other outlets but nothing seemed worthy enough. Lee had some nice pair of jeans but I wasn’t interested in buying them on fresh prices lol.
And then was the time for THE stuff which was on my mind all day long – a wrist watch! I wanted a nice looking wrist watch for myself within my price range of upto 3 grands. I had done this market research about wrist watches earlier as well – with a very stringent criteria – “circular dial”, “numbers on the dial”, “digital display on the dial with an analog display”, “metallic straps” – and I found that either I have to buy something from Tissot’s range (starts from 18 grands and above) – or seriously rethink about my criterias. So today, I started out with a completely fresh mind with all criteria’s taking the back seat. I planned to take a brand new look at all of the available collections once again. Timex and Titan were two brands on my hit-list.
So – where do we start? Titan was first shop we visited. Had a look around – the watches on display were either too simplistic (golden dials with black straps) or too costly – starting INR 7,000 and above. Naah! Next in line was Lifestyle Mall – the Men’s accessories section had some nice wrist watch brands on display but again – same problem. However, I did saw some good Timex watches there – they even had some discounts running. I picked one watch as a fall back option and decided to check out Pune Central. Mahesh was playing pretty cool all along – as usual, giving his expert opinions on every watch I pick up 
– infact, he did chipped in some good suggestions lol
I’ve been previously to Pune Central’s Men’s accessories section in my previous watch hunt. I knew what I was dealing with and where can I find the watches which’ll keep my pocket & wrist both happy. Infact, I even bought Mom’s birthday present from Central itself So, again Timex watches turned out to be far more appealing and suiting than Titan, Citizen or Casio. And this time, since I had no preset criteria about the watch I was going to buy, I had a wide variety in front of me. And after about 30 minutes of checking out watches (3 customers finalized their orders in front of me) I zeroed in on a Timex watch. It was a watch with a circular dial, white background, a perpetual calendar and hands for seconds/24-hours apart from the usual stuff and a brown leather strap. In short, it was almost completely different from the ones I wanted when I first went out for watch hunting (talk of those stingent criteria ). But I fell in love with the watch then and there.
The price – 5.5 grands – INR 5,500
I was so damn confused! The one watch, out of the hundreds which I had checked out in the evening – was priced much above my pre-decided price range of INR 3k. What to do now? – Called up Sameer (my bro) – “Dude, if you like the watch – go for it, but make sure that you stick to it for the time to come. Take it as an investment!” – I have never spent that much on a watch and the decision wasn’t going to be easy for me. Though there was a discount on Timex range at Lifestyle Mall, they didn’t had this model on display. So either I had to buy it from here, or forget it.
An idea struck & I called up JustDial services to get a list of authorized dealers of Timex across Pune. Talked to a few of them to check up about discounts, etc & each confirmed negative. That means, what discount was being offered at Lifestyle, was going to be only in that Mall.
We had one more place to visit before I was going to finalize my decision – Pyramids Mall at MG Road – and me and Mahesh were on the move once again. Getting a parking slot, big enough for my Bike was a problem at MG Road – on weekends, its like all of Pune has descended to MG Road. We managed to find a free parking slot for the bike & went ahead into the Mall.
At the entrance, was this guard who was frisking everyone. As we entered, we were also frisked – and as Mahesh was again giving his expert comments on the level and uselessness of this frisking procedure, my eyes were searching for the Men’s accessories section & to my surprise, just 10 steps away from the entrance was the Timex authorized outlet!
The instant we entered the shop, I asked him to pull out model number T2M429 – he showed me 4 different types! Luckily, the same watch was available here with a metallic strap and with more beautiful orange + white dial – splendid! It took less than 5 minutes to finalize the order and get it packed! This was a big deal for me – taking care of this watch was going to be a big responsibility – whatever! I was prepared!
Timex Retrogrades Collection – T2M431 – INR 5,495
The day ended with a munch at Cafe Coffee Day, with all the members of D-25 having a good time, munching on veg puffs, eggless cookies and coffee.
So in the end…
Total shopping in the day – INR 6,245
THE Watch – INR 5,495
Satisfaction – Priceless!
The sentence thats going to be on my mind for some days to come – “Whats the time dude?”
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