Each spring, winder, chime and tool is a piece of Swiss perfection purchased by his father, Vasdev Singh, the first in the family to move from India to East Africa. Many Sikh men traditionally bear the surname Singh, or lion in Punjabi, while by tradition Sikh women are Kaurs, princesses. She picked Gita Kaur, whose grandmother had kept Gita virtually cloistered in the family house in Nairobi until she was 19. Next year, Ravinder and Gita will have been married for half a century, the trepidations of youth dispelled by time. “I won’t grow old.”But he is growing old, and wonders what will become of the line of Singh watchmakers once he’s gone.

Source: Wall Street Journal January 17, 2026 12:56 UTC