In India, marriage
is not just a ceremony, it’s a carnival, a festival full of glitters, lights,
pomp and show!. Traditionally a wrist watch is one of the many gifts that a groom
would get in his marriage. It was an integral part of the most of the
engagement ceremonies. I always wondered what could be the significance of this
gift. My take on this is that the family wishes the couple to have a good time
and a good watch would bring them luck. It’s a natural human tendency to draw
parallels between similar events. Often in the marriages that I have attended I
hear the earlier generations remember their marriages and the good old days
with a lot of fondness. During my discussions with those who got married in the
late 70's and the 80's a few things were pretty common in the marriage ceremonies,
the groom cherished a brand new Bajaj scooter, a two-in-one stereo music system
and a good watch. The most sought after watch and a favorite with the grooms at
that time was the HMT Kanchan automatic watch. The demand for this watch would
spike specially during the marriage season i.e. auspicious days to get married
as per the Hindu calendar. People would queue in front of HMT showrooms before
the opening time to ensure that they get the watch before it got sold out but
had to often return empty handed for the demand was always more than the supply
of these watches. People would book a Kanchan watch in advance to ensure its
availability on the right time. Some also brought letters of recommendations
from ministers to skip the waiting list for a Kanchan watch. Times changed in
late 80's and early 90's when Titan started producing quartz watches and replaced the Kanchan
watch which as the most sought after watch of an Indian wedding.
Kanchan
means “Gold/Golden” in Hindi and true to its name the watch looks as if it was
made of gold - case, dial, hands, indices, bracelet and even the days in the
watch were all gold plated. Gold is the most auspicious metal for Indians
especially Hindus and thus the watch provided the required auspiciousness and
glitter to the marriage ceremony. Also, An HMT Kanchan automatic watch looks
quite similar to the Rado diastar watches and thus became the next best thing
to the expensive Rado watches. Therefore Kanchan Automatic became an integral
part of the Indian weddings.
HMT also issued
Kedar automatic watch which also shared a striking similarity to the Rado
Diastar watches. HMT Kanchan is also one of the most serviced watch in HMT
service centres indicating the huge number of Kanchan watches sold at one time
by HMT and it being the symbol of the fond memories for its owners who want to
keep the watch running.
HMT Kanchan watch
had a reliable day and date HMT 6500 in-house movement with a screw-off watch
back. The dial size was 35-36 mm and inserted gold plated indices marking the
hours on its dial. Normally with 6500 movement the days would be in grey color but in this watch they were in golden colour which made it quite different from
the other HMT automatic watches with the 6500 movement. This watch was available
with option of a gold polished steel bracelet or a leather strap.
Later on HMT
stopped the manufacturing of Kanchan automatic and released the HMT Kanchan Premium
automatic series. This watch was released in white, black and golden dial with
an 8205 movement. The dial was similar to the earlier Kanchan watch at 35-36mm
diameter. It had a guilloche/graphic dial as compared to the plain dial of HMT Kanchan
watch. This watch was available with option of a gold polished steel bracelet or
a leather strap.
With time
HMT stopped the production of HMT Kanchan automatic and released the Kanchan
supreme watches. It has a bigger dial around 43-46mm and is currently produced
at the HMT Bangalore factory. This watch has an 8205 movement and comes in
white, golden and black dial variants. The dial and hands of this watch is
quite different from the earlier models. This watch is currently available in
HMT showrooms across India.
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