HMT Skeleton watches

Through this blog I share information about the HMT Skeleton watches. HMT released four different types of skeleton watches since the 1990s :

1. Hand winding Skeleton  watches
2. Quartz Skeleton watches
3. Jhalak - Semi skeleton watches
4. Automatic Skeleton watches

Out of these the first two were arguably a failure at the time of release and were made in limited quantities and thus have become very rare to come across and even rarer to collect. Let me take you through their journey one by one.

1. Hand winding Skeleton  watches. This watch was released in the early 90s and is popularly known as Sona skeleton watch as it is in a gold plated case and has a gold plated 0231 hand winding movement. The case is relatively thin and the dial has an inner bezel with Roman numeral marking the hour and minutes. The exposed gold plated movement plate has design markings on it adding to its charm and has black color stick hands.These watches came on both leather and gold plated steel bracelets. This watch was released in the 1990s and were not well received by its customer as most of the public attention was towards quartz watches.This is one watch that can be termed super rare and is on the wish list of every HMT watch collector. The same treatment was received there competitor Allwyn's skeleton watches. These Sona skeleton watches became the base for the semi skeleton Jhalak watches 

   

   HMT Hand winding skeleton watch from an HMT watch brochure

   
   

   

   HMT Skeleton watch in person

2. HMT Quartz skeleton watches.These watches were released in 1990s and have HMT 2150 quartz movement with non decorated movement. The inner bezel that acts as a dial had baton/stick/jewel indices and black colored stick hands. These watches also did not appeal the customers because of its looks as more appealing quartz watches were available in the market.This watch is so rare that i am yet to see one in person. Most of the HMT watch collectors are not even aware of its presence.

   

   Skeleton quartz watch

3. HMT Jhalak - Semi skeleton watches. These watches never got their dues from the customers and its only much later that its fan following increased and has now reached a cult status among HMT watch collectors. These watches were released with three dial color variants - White, Yellow and black. These have a pie shaped cavity on the dial between 8 and 10 hour markers through which one can see the decorated gold plated movement plate with the escape wheel in motion. These came on attractive leather straps and just like other HMT skeleton watches came with black colored stick hands.
   
   
   

   

   Picture Courtesy Raja Sekhar

   
   
   
4. HMT Automatic skeleton watches - This is the most expensive automatic watch from the house of HMT. It was released in the year 2013 and was priced at INR 9500 for the gold plated version and INR 9250 for the stainless steel version. Later in the year 2015 its prices were increased to INR 10500 and now they are listed at INR 12440.The versions released in 2013 and 2015 came in two case variants.Golden version came with a fluted bezel and gold plated 8N24 movement and mirror finish golden inner ring and a golden dial.Steel one came with a polished plain bezel and stainless steel movement and a steel mirror finish golden ring and white dial. 8N24 is the skeleton 8205 movement. These had painted blue hands and mineral crystal on top.The dials further came in two variants one with arabic numerals and the other one with studded crystals. The one that has been released in 2018 has polished golden case with white/golden dial and studded crystals along with gold plated 8N24 movement and painted blue hands.The 2018 version is currently listed on the www.hmtwatches.in although i must warn you that these get sold out in seconds.

   

   2013-2015 Crystal studded HMT Automatic skeleton watch Pic courtesy Jayatirtha Karunam

   
   

   

   Arabic numeral Gold plated variant. 2013/2015 issue .Pic courtesy Gaurav Mehta
   

   
   

   

   Arabic numeral stainless steel case version 2013/2015 issue

   
   

   

   2018 issue pic courtesy HMT ltd

   
   

   

   2018 issue pic courtesy HMT

   
   

   

   HMT packaging for 2018 issue . Pic courtesy Ravee C Kuppuswamy 

   
   

   

   HMT packaging for 2018 issue . Pic courtesy Ravee C Kuppuswamy 

   
   

   

   HMT packaging for 2018 issue . Pic courtesy Ravee C Kuppuswamy 

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

I thank you for reading this long block. As always your feedback and suggestions are welcome.