This Indore-based company makes wooden watches and customises them too!

We have all worn leather and metal-based watches, but have you worn a wooden watch? Indore-based Pan Coupe uses leftover wood from abandoned furniture and makes not just wrist watches, but also sunglasses. 

Started by cousins 28-year-old Arpan Bhutda and 29-year-old Aashutosh Pasari in 2012, Pan Coupe officially registered in 2015 as a company. Both engineers, the two started Pan Coupe as a product recommendation from a friend, as a wooden watch wasn’t available in the market at that time.Ask Aashutosh why they selected wood specifically and he says, “Compared to metal or plastic, wood is renewable. It also requires less energy than metal, when we rework or machine it.”

With a 1,200 sq ft workshop in Indore, every process needed to put together a wooden watch is done in-house. The wood is sourced from the local market, and since the products needs very little wood, they don’t necessarily require fresh wood and use leftovers from old furniture. “We first slice the wood into required dimensions and cut as per design,” explains Aashutosh. “The small wood pieces are then carved and shaped by hand, the final watch body is polished with natural materials and then assembled with other parts such as the watch movement, dial, glass, crown and the buckle.” All these tiny parts are sourced from the local market, or Mumbai, he adds. You can choose from a gorgeous, transparent Jinx Open Heart model, or a partially transparent model like Enchant Pacman — whichever best suits your style! 

If you’re looking to customise your watch, you can add a photograph, name or initial inside the dial, choose wood type, the strap design and even the back cap. You can choose between a rich teak wood, red wenge, black wenge, paduk and pine wood. “It is a completely handcrafted product from bark to wrist,” promises Aashutosh.

Available online
From `2,500.