“White enamel with luminous Arabic numerals…Subsidiary sunk dials for the seconds at six and the alarm at 12. Blue steel skeleton hands…”

Those are excerpts of the description used by auction house Antiquorum to describe Mohandas K. Gandhi’s watch. It was put up for sale yesterday, along with other personal items, including his trademark round spectacles.

It was a lively auction, to put it mildly. The Indian government condemned the sale, arguing Gandhi’s belongings were national treasures. The seller, American peace activist James Otis, tried to cancel the sale at the last minute.

The items eventually sold for 1.8 million dollars to billionaire Vijay Mallya, who says he’ll return them to India.

We called Gandhi’s grandson Arun to get his reaction…