About

About Marcks & Co.

Reviving India’s forgotten horological legacy

The Founders

Arjun Ravi Shankar is an engineer and Indian classical musician who discovered in watchmaking the perfect union of engineering and artistry. When he encountered the forgotten story of Marcks & Co., he knew this legacy deserved to be revived.

Bhavish is a chemical engineer, magician, and musician, endlessly drawn to innovation, design, and the joy of discovering what’s next. Watches, with their moving parts and quiet magic, have always fascinated him.

Arjun and Bhavish Malkani met in elementary school and went on to attend middle school, high school, and college, growing not only as friends, but as business partners. Bhavish first introduced Arjun to the world of mechanical watches in college, sharing his fascination with the intricate engineering behind the timepieces. Arjun, in turn, introduced Bhavish to the story of Marcks & Co. Together, they decided to bring it back to life.

Heritage, with a future

Why we brought Marcks & Co. back

India’s place in fine watchmaking is richer than many people imagine. Marcks & Co. was once synonymous with artistry, innovation, and royal patronage in India. Yet over time, its story faded from memory. We believe great stories and great craftsmanship deserve to be remembered.

Our mission is not to recreate the past, but to honor it by translating the elegance, symbolism, and spirit of India’s regal watchmaking tradition into timepieces meant for today.

Our heritage

Bombay & Poona

The historic house

From Bombay and Poona, Marcks & Co. commissioned extraordinary watches, bringing together the ambitions of Indian patrons and the talents of celebrated European makers.

In historian Osvaldo Patrizzi’s account, a former salesman remembers Marcks as the most important importer of Swiss watches of his day. Its showcases sparkled with enamel and jewels, while intricate mechanisms chimed the hours and brought miniature figures to life.

Today, historic Marcks & Co. pocket watches appear at leading auction houses including Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Antiquorum. These surviving treasures connect the name to makers such as Henri Grandjean and LeCoultre, alongside remarkable pieces attributed to Louis Audemars.

Explore a complicated Marcks & Co. pocket watch attributed to Louis Audemars and a Marcks & Co. watch with a LeCoultre movement and moving enamel figures.

The art of the extraordinary

Artistry & patronage

A watch fit for the Nizam

Made for Marcks & Co. around 1900 and sold to Mahbub Ali Khan, the Sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, the pocket watch pictured here captures the extraordinary ambition of the historic house.

Its diamond-set gold case conceals a world of mechanical ingenuity: a minute repeater that sounds the time, a perpetual calendar, a chronograph and moon phases. Together with its original diamond-set chain, it is as much a work of jewellery as a feat of watchmaking.

On 13 November 2005, the watch and chain sold at Antiquorum for CHF 1,271,250—a remarkable legacy for a timepiece bearing the Marcks & Co. name.

Explore the Marcks & Co. masterpiece · Antiquorum

2022 — today

The revival

From pocket watch to wristwatch

For Arjun and Bhavish, discovering Marcks & Co. became the beginning of something personal. Arjun’s research led him to Patrizzi’s writing and a conversation with the historian. In 2022, the two friends decided to revive the name; in 2025, Marcks & Co. launched its inaugural collection.

The Nizam, The Raja and The Captain bring that inspiration into a contemporary form. Rich green and blue dials, gold accents and the clarity of a white dial with blued hands offer different expressions of the history that first captured our imagination.

Our ambition extends beyond this first collection: to explore Indian artistry through watch design and, over time, deepen our manufacturing capabilities in India. The historic watches are our inspiration. The work of building this new chapter is ours.

Explore the collection