We were a 12-people IT support team working in a small SEZ area known as Verna in Goa. Our team head was Miss Kenerson from UK who was on deputation from our parent company based in London.
Miss Kenerson was a beautiful 26-year old IT graduate – one of those beauty-with-brains. She was also very good at running our support team. We had regular party outings, personnel issues were resolved promptly and moreover, in her 2-year tenure we each had received 4 substantial increments. So, it was with a lot of sadness that we received the information that she was to return to the head office in London; a promotion we were told. It seems, her bosses were happy with our performance under her.
The 12 of us had an informal meeting and we decided to gift her a nice watch. Eleven of us pitched in Rs 500 each while the team leader put in Rs 1,000/- So, we had Rs 6,500/- in the kitty with which to buy a nice watch. We nominated two amongst us to do an online search and recommend a suitable watch. The watch had to be selected, bought and delivered before the weekend. The send-off was to be on Saturday – 6 days away. The matter was urgent.
Madhu and Ramesh, the two members who were nominated, googled away and browsed through hundreds of sites. They not only had to locate a classy watch, it had to be within our budget. On Tuesday after office hours, we met to check out the watches they had short-listed.
Amongst the short-listed watches, one particular watch stood out; it was the Fossil Kinsey ES4449 Diamond Accents Quartz Women’s Watch. To me, the watch looked just as beautiful as Miss Kenerson and I personally felt it was a perfect match. Fortunately for us, others too felt the same.
The dial was a bright white with gold accented hour markers in Roman numerals. The watch hands too were in gold. On the watch case, were tiny diamonds glittering in a rainbow of colours. The bracelet was stainless-steel and gold. At just under 3 cm across, the face of the watch was medium sized and it was easy to read the time. The watch was just 6mm thick. Everything about the Fossil Kinsey ES4449 Diamond Accents Quartz Women’s Watch spelt class and beauty. Apart from this, Madhu and Ramesh informed us that the Fossil brand was created by an American fashion designer and that it spelt quality.
The site we were going to buy it from was Citiwatches.in here; https://www.citywatches.in/product/fossil-kinsey-es4449-diamond-accents-quartz-womens-watch/ the retail price tag was Rs 9,000+ but it was being sold at Rs 6,800 and change. I emptied my box of stationery and each of us put in a 50 or 20 to make up for the minor difference in the amount collected and the purchase price.
The watch arrived on Friday afternoon. We opened the package, checked the watch and verified the presence of the International warranty. The box was repacked and gift-wrapped for the send-off party on Saturday evening. She loved it – no, she did not jump with joy – that would have been undignified. But the sudden glow on her face when she saw the watch told us we were right in our selection.
