Happiest day in the life of an HMT watch collector

As a watch enthusiast, I would often hear from fellow enthusiasts about the watches they got from their father. Here is the story of my father’s gift to me and the happiest day of my life.

My father is my hero and his impact on my life is immense, my love for watches germinated from the time I saw my father’s wrist watch. My father’s daily beater was a Ricoh Japan, automatic movement watch. It had an emeraldish greenish-blue dial, a day-date calendar and was nothing less than a wonder to me. He would put it next to his pillow at night and I would often look at the lumed dots glowing softly in the night and wondered when I would get one for myself. In the 90s his Ricoh watch ended up in his cupboard and was replaced by a Timex watch, which had a quartz movement. This Timex watch stayed on his wrist ever since. He often received other and more expensive watches but the Timex watch ruled his wrist.

My father knew of my obsession with watches and HMT watches in particular and we would often talk about them. Last year when I had visited him, he gave me his Ricoh watch and the child in me got the most cherished object. A couple of years back, I told him that I bought for him an HMT “Provash” automatic, which is quite similar to his first name “Pravesh”, he gave me his evergreen answer “Please don’t get me a watch, I don’t need another watch”. I respected his decision and lost all hopes of seeing another watch on his wrist and thought the Timex will be his daily beater forever.

My Father's Ricoh Japan watch on my wrist today

However, god wanted to fulfil yet another dream of mine. I got a call from my father a few days back and he told me he wants my advice on a wrist watch. He informed me that his Timex watch has stopped working and is with the service center and he has not been wearing any watches for some time. My heart was filled with joy when he said that he wanted to wear an HMT watch from now on. He said that it’s our good old Indian brand and with me always advocating the use of HMT watches he wanted to wear one. As always, his requirements were clear – a gold plated quartz watch with day-date function and dial shape other than round (his timex watch had a round dial and he wanted to try something new). He also said that he did not want many options as it might confuse him and that the day calendar should be in Hindi. After some thought and search, I zeroed down on Sangam Premium MGGG 06 PRE WD. I shared a few pictures with him and he liked it instantly. The only problem was that the day calendar was in English and Japanese while he wanted it to be in Hindi and English. However, when I told the seller about it, he offered to change the Japanese calendar to Hindi and with the change incorporated; watch was shipped.I knew that my father would want to wear the watch on the first day of Navratri and luckily the watch reached him a day earlier. Today, he wore the watch after the pariva pooja of first day of Navratri and sent me a wrist shot. Words fail the expression of my happiness. Today, without even a shadow of doubt, is the happiest day of my life as a son, who also happens to be a watch collector....an HMT watch collector. 

My Father's wrist shot with his HMT Sangam Premium watch

Memory Restored – Restoring the first HMT watch I ever saw

Sometime in the year of 1987, one evening, upon his return from his office, we noticed a beautiful watch on my grandfather’s wrist. It was an HMT HQ series day date quartz watch, a novelty in the days of mechanical watches. That moment was my first introduction to an HMT watch; I was a seven years old then. He had received the watch from his bank as a reward for his exemplary performance at work that day and it replaced the Favre leuba watch that adorned his wrist, till then. It was a proud moment for all of us and the watch became a permanent time keeper for him, till his last breath. Post his demise my uncle started wearing the watch but after a few years he moved on with his other watches and the watch stopped receiving wrist time. Time moved on and from a school going kid, I progressed to college and then became a working professional. Memory of my grandfather’s watch faded in the background of my busy life. A few years back, I was on my way back home from the Bengaluru International Airport, when I spotted HMT Bhavan (Head Office of HMT watches) and memories came rushing back to me. I purchased my first HMT watch the very next day and have been hooked on to HMT watches ever since. I have written about it in my earlier blog (Blog link)

Since that day, I was always curious about the whereabouts of my grandfather’s HMT watch. I made enquiries with my uncle and grandmother but no one was sure about the location of the watch. A couple of months back my aunt visited our ancestral home at Lucknow and upon return handed over the watch which she found after an exhaustive search. It was found t in my grandfather’s office briefcase. The glorious watch was now in a dilapidated state. The strap had broken and the glass had cracked to pieces with dust all over the dial and a dead movement. I was determined to restore the watch to its glory. I took it to a watchmaker; he confirmed that the quartz movement was beyond repair due to spill over of chemicals from the dead battery and exposure to atmosphere. I checked with HMT watches repair centers but they also did not have a spare movement for the watch due to their current state of affairs. I checked with multiple dealers and finally found an unused 2105 original HMT quartz movement for the watch. I got it cosmetically restored by getting a new glass, repairing the strap and cleaning the dial. The watch finally ticked back to its original rhythm.

Old destroyed quartz movement

As I write this blog, the first HMT watch I ever saw, a trophy of my grandfather’s hard work is on my wrist to be treasured for ever and to be passed on to the next generations of our family. HMT watches have been time keepers of our nation but to me they are also timekeepers of generations. 

Restored watch of My Grandfather

A Curtain Call – Closing down of the HMT Chennai Showroom

The Curtain Call – The closing down of the HMT Chennai Showroom

HMT Chennai Showroom

My association with HMT Chennai showroom goes back to the year 2013. It began with a phone call, asking them if they had any of my favourite HMT watches in stock. This was followed by an overnight bus journey over the week end. The visit helped me tick-off a dozen HMT watches from my wish list. I made some good friends at the showroom who helped me a lot in my journey as a collector and enthusiast.

In the last few months, HMT watches have started closing off their showrooms in major cities of India and a few days back their showroom in Chennai closed its operations. The news of its closure brought back so many memories. It’s been quite a while that I could visit them and now it’s too late. Below is an eyewitness account from my friend Jaideep Ramdas, an HMT watch collector and enthusiast from Chennai

  

I had visited my favourite showroom one fine Friday, a couple of weeks back. It had been a while since I had been there, owing to work and other commitments. I was in for a shock when I saw the state of the showroom. It was completely rearranged and seemed different. The display shelves were moved to a corner and their red velvet steps empty. These were the same shelves that I use to keep gazing at longingly. Once packed with HMT watches, they were now bare. Huge steel cupboards, the Godrej almirahs, the staple of every Indian household and offices were all lined up together. It was always a pleasure when Mr. Govindaraj opened these. You could always expect a surprise, a grey dial Sameer or a nice HMT watch strap. There were packed cardboard boxes everywhere and some heavy vintage pedestal fans.

Mr. Govindaraj, seeing the expression on my face, explained to me that they had started the process of closing down the showroom. All the things were getting packed and being sent to HMT Bangalore. Apart from that, some old cupboards and fans would be auctioned internally. Though I knew the showroom was going to close, seeing it happen was very sad. The Chennai Showroom was and will always be very special to me. A majority of my collection were purchased from this showroom. It was from the Chennai showroom (at a different location) that I started on my watch journey after reading that famous post on HMT Pilot watch by Frans Mattez. My first purchase was a Janata and a Sona.

For the last four years, a visit to this showroom and long chats with Mr. Govindaraj and other members of this team was my routine on Saturdays. The knowledge and the rich experience these people possessed was amazing and they were willing to share it. Our discussions were quite informative and enjoyable Mr. Govindarajan, Mr.Natraj , Mr.Nagaraj and Ms. Divya were a huge support in my watch collecting journey. I consider it my good fortune to have met them, learnt from them and also am guided by them in this endeavour. The Chennai showroom was also a meeting point of other watch collectors who later became friends. It was great to meet another person who had an interest in HMT watches and chat. Every visit to the showroom would be a surprise because

you never knew what you were going to get, whom you were going to meet or what you were going to learn.

Last Saturday, when I visited the showroom, it was in the final stages of closure. Though I was mentally prepared, I still felt sad. One of the most iconic brands was shutting down its presence in my city. The highlight of the day was meeting Mr. Muhamad Bakhar, a former employee and one of the senior most technicians. It was great talking to him about watches and his experiences with the company. As I bid bye to the HMT showroom and the team, I could not help thinking of them. These people along with the other HMT staff represent a breed of committed professionals and are the unsung heroes of brand HMT. They have kept the flag of HMT watches flying high inspite of the circumstances.

Hats off to you gentlemen! Here’s wishing you all success.

L to R - Mr. Nagraj, Mr Natraj, Mr Govindaraj, Mr.Jaideep

L to R - Mr. Muhamad Bakhar,Mr. Nagraj, Mr Natraj, Mr Govindaraj,Mr.Shekar

A bus ride to rare HMT watches

I believe the best way to explore Bangalore is to take a ride on an early morning or late evening BMTC bus. I often do this on a Sunday morning. I travel across the city in almost empty buses enjoying the cool breeze and old Hindi film songs played on the radio. A few weeks back I was enjoying my routine bus journey. While my headphones were crooning “main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya” a Mohd. Rafi classic, I received a gentle tap om my shoulder. An elderly gentleman was standing next to my seat  I shifted closer to the window to give him enough seat space. He tapped my shoulder again. I removed my headphones unwillingly darting a questioning glance in his direction. “May I ask you a question ?” –Said the man. “Please tell me” was my response. “Can you show me your watch” He enquired. I projected my left wrist towards him in answer. “That’s a nice watch you have their young man”. A conversation began immediately and after a few minutes the gentleman said – “I have HMTs too and have fond memories attached to them. Those were the glorious days, when HMT was the watch of Indians. Would you like to see my watches ?”. “Yes, of course” was my answer. After a couple of bus-stops passed we got down from the bus and headed towards his home. It was a simple and elegantly decorated drawing room of a upper middle class house. Mr. Kumar (name changed on request) introduced me to Mrs. Kumar who bought us our coffees. Mr. Kumar is a retired HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) employee . Over a hot cup of coffee our conversation continued. Presently, Mr. Kumar went inside and bought out his HMT watches. He had a couple of Black Jawahars, a commemorative Kohinoor watch, A Janata and a very special pilot watch. I was mesmerized by the beauty of these watches, the rare pilot with broad indices in particular. He showed me his watches with a lot of pride – “I got it on my service anniversary” he said looking at the Pilot watch. I have worn these watches very rarely and kept them inside my safe box. As we talked more, he learnt more about my HMT watch madness and heard my stories with interest. He shared quite a few instances and stories that he had heard and his experiences related to HMT watches.  

After enjoying his company and his HMT watches for sometime, I decided to take his leave. “Prashant, we are leaving for the US of A in the next few weeks to live with our son and family. We stay alone here and he is always concerned about our well being .We have stayed all our life in Bangalore but since my son is adamant and what he says makes practical sense…we are relocating.” I went silent for a minute and then said “ I have made a lot of friends, thanks to HMT watches. Today is probably the first time I have made and lost a friend in a day”. “No..No we are still here for a few weeks..you must meet us before we leave Bangalore”. I promised to do so.

I received a call from Mr. Kumar after a couple of weeks. “Prashant, we are leaving for the US this weekend. Let’s catch up over a cup of coffee”. I met Mr. and Mrs. Kumar at their house. I updated him on the watches I had added to my collection in the last two weeks and promised to meet him upon his return. Since their flight was early next morning I decided it was time for me to conclude my visit. As I got up to take a leave he said – “Here this is for you” and handed over a packet to me. “This is a small gift for you. Open it once you reach home”. I had to visit a few more places and reached home a little late at night. After having my dinner I opened the packet. I was dumbfounded – for the packet contained Mr. Kumar’s HMT watches and small note that said “please accept them as a gift from me…..let the made in India stay in India J”.

It was too late to disturb them in the night and I have not been able to reach Mr. Kumar since that day. Friends, It’s just amazing how a wrist watch can turn two perfect strangers into friends. I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Kumar through this blog…Thank you Kumar Sir..thanks a lot”

Mr. Kumar's Broad Indices pilot watch which he received on his 15th service anniversary 

Case back of his Pilot watch with the etching celebrating his 15 years of association with HAL

The beautiful Jawahar watches

His Kohinoor watch which he received from his organization HAL during his service

The Chase Is Better Than The Catch - Not really

I am a fan of Rock Music and there is a famous song from the band Motorhead “The Chase Is Better Than The Catch”. For me though the “The Chase Is as good as The Catch” when it comes to chasing these watches from the bygone era. My quest for HMT watches have taken me on some interesting trips and places. I have met a lot of interesting people on these trips. Sometimes travelling alone and sometimes with a few like-minded HMT watch maniacs. I like to call these trips “HMT Hunting trips” for they are quite similar to a hunting trip. Just like hunting you do not know which trophy you would bag and if at all you would be lucky to get something interesting on a day. You are thrilled every time you bag something great and move on to the next one when you return empty handed.  

Earlier this year I traveled  to Pune. I went to the HMT watches Pune retail showroom to check what I could get from them. The showroom in Pune is close to the Natraj Hotel and had a neglected look. I found the usual display stalls and started browsing through them. There lying in the corner was an HMT Vidhan watch. Boy! I was thrilled, for this was the first time I had seen this watch. I asked the person on the counter if I could inspect this watch. He gave the watch to me and I was stumped by its beauty. I requested him to bill it in my name. I also requested him to show me a few more watches that might not be on the counter. He said that he had one more watch that might be of interest to me. He said he had a black dial pilot watch. I said I already have one and did not fancy adding one more to my collection. He said that this one’s different and with a winner’s smile he placed on the counter top a black pilot watch. Yes, it was different for unlike a normal black pilot watch this one had lumed numerals from 1 to 12 marked on the dial. He said that this is the last piece available with them. Then he told me that it was designed by him. I said…”what…you designed this watch”. “Not only this but the one on your wrist as well” said the man. I was wearing my daily beater the all Hindi Janata (1-12 numerals in Hindi). He went to a corner in the showroom and returned with letters where his design was approved for the watch that I had on my wrist and the one on the counter. I was quite happy to meet the designer of my favorite watch and I could not thank him enough for the joy the watch gave me every day.  

I left the showroom as a contended hunter would, with the trophies I had bagged on that day. As I was travelling back the thought lingered on my mind “The catch was better than the chase today”

 

HMT Pilot watch – Cruising through the decades

“What’s wrong with him why is he buying and collecting all that junk” said the voice at the other end of the phone receiver. “Papa, please don’t say that…those watches are beautiful and are very good” countered my wife. ”So when are you reaching Bangalore” she said trying to change the topic. “Ok we will be there to receive you …good bye” she disconnected the call and turned back to find me in my most amusing mood. “So you heard it all…right…he was just poking some fun on you… they will be reaching Bangalore this Saturday morning”

My father in law’s reaction to my hobby of collecting HMT watches does not surprise me. Especially when he wears an original Rado Ceramica watch. Thankfully my wife is on my side. Finally the fateful Saturday came and we reached the railway station in time to welcome them. After a nice breakfast of steaming hot Idlis and Chai I left my house to catch up with my friends at the HMT showroom located inside the Unity building complex on J C Road, Bangalore. I usually spend a couple of hours most of the Saturday’s at this showroom learning more about the watches and also meeting new and interesting people amongst those who visit the showroom. I met a man of my age at the showroom who initiated a conversation with me by sharing his admiration for the HMT pilot watch that I was wearing on that day. We were busy expressing our love for these watches and sharing our experiences when my phone started ringing. I picked-up the call. It was from my wife “When are you planning to return…Papa wants to speak with you”. I started back for my home though I was not really willing to conclude my meeting abruptly.

I reached home in good time much to the relief of my wife. I was relaxing in my sofa enjoying the cool Bangalore breeze when my father in law took his seat next to me. “ Beta ye ghadi dekhana zara ye babasahab ki hai (son can you please take a look at this watch this belonged to grandfather). I took the watch in my hand to inspect it and to my great joy it was an HMT black dial pilot watch. It had a black nylon strap. It looked battered and it was clearly a daily beater of my grandfather-in-law. The second’s hand come out and was lying inside the acrylic crystal dome on the dial. I rotated the crown to wind the watch and brought it to my ear. The watch was ticking. It was a beautiful coincidence with a pilot on my wrist and a vintage pilot in my hands. Both the watches however separated by the age difference of decades.

He could feel my happiness and said I am happy that you liked it. I called my wife and showed her the watch, she was equally happy. My father-in-law had surprised us both with this watch. I took the watch to the Unity building HMT showroom for servicing where it was serviced and it’s now keeping an accurate time. I was told that the watch was serviced once before in the early 90s. I am now a proud owner of two pilot watches - a grandfather and a grandson Pilot watch.

Major differences between the Vintage and New Pilots

Vintage Pilot had a domed crown as compared to flat head of the new pilot’s crown.  The dial of the vintage Pilot had “water protected” printed on the dial

 The case back of vintage pilot also had “water dust protected” etched on it. While the latest pilots have 0231 (watch movement) etched on it the vintage one’s do not have the same mentioned anywhere on the watch. The new pilot watch has shock resistant etched on it while the earlier one had “shock proof”. Vintage pilot watch back was threaded and screw off while the new ones have a threaded snap – off watch back

The Minister and his faulty HMT watch

This was an incident that was narrated to me by a friend at HMT watches. Quite a few years back HMT watches had a showroom at the parliament street. Those days HMT had it’s showrooms at two places in Delhi - One at the Parliament street and another one at Khan market. But those were in the golden days of HMT watches and now we have only one showroom which is situated in the Jhandewalan extension in New Delhi.

This showroom at parliament street was frequented by aam Indian Janata (normal public), government officials and the politicians alike. One day the store got a call from one of the minister’s who wanted to buy a watch. He informed that his personal assistant or PA as they are popularly known as will come to pick it up on his behalf. The watch was kept ready and the same was bought by the PA on the minister’s behalf .He left in a hurry to take care of his work at the office and to deliver the watch back to his minister. Everybody thought that the transaction was over but the showroom saw the PA visiting them again the day after the watch was purchased. He claimed that the watch was faulty and wanted it to be replaced immediately. HMT issues a guarantee card with each watch purchased by its customers promising the performance of its product. It also promises that if the watch is found faulty the same would be repaired or replaced. The minister’s PA had the guarantee card and since the watch was a day old the store gave him a new watch.

So the PA left the showroom only to return back in a couple of days with the same issue and the watch was again replaced. Another two days passed and this time the minister himself graced the showroom with his esteemed presence. He was fuming with anger. A question was raised immediately by the esteemed minister on the quality of watches manufactured by the company and he shared his worry that if this was the quality of watches sold to the ministers what would be the quality of watches sold to the common Indian citizen.

The HMT staff was quite amused themselves but then kept quite as it was their product that was at fault. One of the HMT staff members from the store asked the minister politely to explain clearly what exactly was the problem he was facing with his watch. The minister fumed “problem…you are asking me what is the problem…the damn thing can’t even work for more than a couple of days. I got the watch on Monday and it stopped on Tuesday night again I got the watch and again it stopped”

The real issue behind the problem then dawned upon the staff members. They took the watch from the minister winded it and the watch started ticking again. The staff then explained to both the minister and his PA how the watch functions and how to keep it running. The minister and the PA left the showroom in a better mood not to return again much to the relief of the HMT staff members.

HMT watch on Mr. Nehru’s Birthday today

 I don’t want this to sound like a school essay. Today is the birth anniversary of Pt. Jawahar lal Nehru. He was the first prime minister of India and was very fond of Children.He considered them to be the future of India. His birth anniversary every year is celebrated as children’s day in India.

Pt. Nehru was a statesman with a vision.In my earlier bog i have written how his vision lead to the formation of HMT watches.He wished to see a watch on every Indian’s wrist. He wanted the watches to be affordable and of a quality that would sustain the climatic variations in India. This dream was fulfilled by HMT watches Ltd.

In 1988, Mr. Nehru’s birth centenary year HMT launched the Nehru birth centenary watch. It’s a beautiful watch with a black n white portrait of Mr. Nehru on its dial with the Indian tricolor in its back ground. It also has the autograph of Mr. Nehru on its dial.

HMT also manufactured the HMT Jawahar watch to pay its respect to Mr. Nehru.

On this day today we pay our tribute to this great man and we hope that his cherished dream keeps ticking on the wrists of HMT Fans.  

This the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary mechanical watch. Its a 17 jewels winding watch.It took a lot of my time and effort to get this watch. The watch has a few touch-ups.The hour and minutes hands that you see on the watch were actually plain steel in color and the red dots marking the hours were redone. Though i like my watches to be the way they were produced, this is one watch which i really liked with the alterations made by the seller. 

HMT Jawahar

Every watch has a story and HMT watches are more of a rule than an exception.

Its beginning itself is quite interesting. The idea of a poorna Swadeshi (Fully Indian) watch geminated in the mind of India’s first Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru when he visited Japan in the post Independence era to improve Bi-lateral ties with them. This was in the 1950s and during this trip to Japan he was gifted a Japanese watch (apparently a Citizen Watch). That is when the idea of making Indian watches came to the mind of the prime Minister who had a revolutionary   outlook towards Indian Industries. Infact he used to call the factories and workshops as the temple of modern India. He laid the foundation stone of HMT watch factory in Bangalore and in 1961 HMT started making watches in collaboration with Citizen Watch Company of Japan with the 0231 movement in its winding watches. Those of you who want to know more about HMT, i suggest you guys to  visit the HMT watches home page and to read through its history.

HMT honoured the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru by creating economic but reliable watches which kept good time and worked well in the diverse Indian climatic conditions.

Here are the pictures of My HMT Jawahar watches. These are mechanical watches and have a 17 jewels winding movement. These watches honour the man behind the HMT watches Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and were popularly known as the student's watch. These are very rare to find these days and I am lucky enough to own four of them