Meandering through the corridors of a Mumbai five-star hotel early Wednesday morning I was not quite sure what to expect. Finally as the door of suite 648 was flung open, I was pleasantly surprised to come face to face with a jovial Jack Heuer who welcomed me in and threw himself into energetic repartee even before I could pull out my dictaphone. "Like everyone else, I have had my ups and downs in life," reminisces Heuer. Born in 1932, this fiercely 'product-driven' electrical engineer can be accredited with creating not only some of the greatest technical advances of our time, but also some of the most innovative marketing strategies. "During those days, entering the Formula 1 was considered a very bold move." Indeed, but look where it got him.

"Being a proud colonel in the Swedish army, my father presented me with a watch not when I graduated from college, or after I turned 20 but, when I graduated as a lieutenant," quips Heuer. Preserved over the years, this most cherished watch has recently been donated to a museum which will open to the public in the near future. I notice that his eyes light up as I ask him about the technicality and the mechanism of the watches. With their priority being functionality, the designing of a TAG watch, Heuer tells me, "fundamentally starts with its movement. We are not in that sense a fashion watch. We prefer to have something timeless and so don't like changing our design too often. Instead we take a classic, like the Carrera for instance - polish it, refine it - and create something totally new. We prefer to focus on the minute detailing." A few sips of earl grey and he continues, "Today, a watch does so much more than just shows you the time. It has meaning and conveys something about the person." A true TAG devotee "is proud of and will relate to the values of the brand." This includes the likes of Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman and Shah Rukh Khan. A few months ago, King Khan renewed his contract as international brand ambassador for TAG. About Khan, Heuer says, "My wife watches Bollywood movies - he is quite popular."