Today is Rakshabandhan, a day that celebrates the bonding
between brothers and sisters. On this day, sisters tie a silken thread – Rakhee
on their brother’s wrist praying for their long life and the brother’s promise
to protect their sisters from every evil.
The house of HMT watches made a special watch in the early
70s to celebrate this festival with a ladies watch called Rakhee. A watch which
is both unique as well as refined and was a perfect gift from brother’s to
their sisters. It was released in two forms one as a pendent watch (a watch
that can be worn around the neck) and the second one on a bracelet. The unique
thing about this watch was its case which had a delicate Bidri work. Bidri
craft is practised in Bidar-Karnataka, in Andhra Pradesh and in Maharashtra –
bordering Karnataka. The metal used is a blackened alloy of zinc and copper
inlaid with thin sheets of pure silver. (Source – Craft council of India). Each
watch has a hand crafted case with Bidri work and thus each watch has a
different and unique case making each HMT Rakhee watch unique and different from
the other. These watches came with a 17 jewel hand winding mechanical movement.
In my opinion, they are very rarely seen these days as their production stopped
decades back.
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| Picture credit - Tarun Agarwal |
Being a watch collector fills your life with excitement. The
excitement that can be compared with the one felt by a pearl hunter or an
excavator of artifacts. Most collectors talk about the role of luck, of being
the right person at the right place. I believe more in the adage – “Harder I work,
luckier I get”. But then I have days when luck shines upon me and the incident I
am going to narrate here is of one such day and the story of my HMT Rakhee
watch
Late in the year 2014, one night I was on call with my
friend Jaideep and we were discussing HMT watches. Our discussion digressed to
old/Vintage HMT watch advertisements and I started searching them on the net and
came across an old HMT watch newspaper advertisement for sale. It was from the
70s and advertised HMT Rakhee watch. I was pleasantly surprised as I read
through the advertisement and my admiration for the HMT watch company moved a
notch higher. As we discussed, I told Jaideep that we should count ourselves
lucky to even know that such an HMT watch even existed and that adding such a
watch to our collection is nothing less than a distant dream. It was a Friday night
and I had plans for the next day. I dozed off dreaming about HMT Rakhee.
Next morning, I took my wife to the city market area for
shopping and quite forgot about the watch amidst the hustle and bustle of the
busy market. We started back by afternoon to have lunch at Jaynagar. While
driving back I spotted a small shop with a few watches at display. Much to the
chagrin of my wife I decided to stop by and check them. I stepped inside the shop and found the usual
assortment of quartz watches on display. Though disappointed, I was also happy
that I did not have to spend much time at the shop. As I was stepping out the
engaging shopkeeper asked me if he could help me. I told him that I was
searching watches with mechanical movements. He directed me to a neglected display
case inside the shop. I decided to leave it at that, as we were getting late
but the shopkeeper said – atleast take a look, you never know. I sighed and
stepped back inside the shop, as my wife rolled her eyes in despair. I looked
at the watches and to my utter astonishment there on a leather strap was an HMT
Rakhee staring back at me as if asking me of what I was waiting for. A few
minutes later I floated out of the shop with a light heart and a lighter
pocket, a broad smile and an HMT Rakhee to my wife who stared at me with a
magnifying gaze. Later that evening Jaideep was overjoyed with amazement as I narrated
him the events of the day. Both agreed that it was nothing less than a great
stroke of luck. Next, I bought the original advertisement of this watch and I treasure
it now.
I have always believed that HMT watches are full of surprises, most attribute this to the numerous variants and models that were made by this company of which many are unseen and unheard. In my opinion it is also applicable to the collecting aspect of these watches as one might get and unseen gem at most unexpected places.
So that my friend was one lucky day for me which gave me a
watch and an experience that I will treasure throughout my life.
