HMT Gold biscuit watches

This was during 2013. It was a time when my love for HMT watches was blossoming and we used to spend our saturdays in HMT company showroom at Unity building. Mr. Bhagavan YS used to treat us like family and the showroom was my daughter's playground. His encouragement and knowledge really helped me as a collector and admirer of HMT watches. I was able to see these silent timekeepers in a different light all thanks to him. It was he who told us about the Utsav gem series watches (will talk about it some other time) and the elegance gold biscuit watches.
From the time we came to know about the watch we pestered him to get us the gold biscuit watches. My wife's birthday was fast approaching and I really wanted to gift her something special. I was scouring through shops and e-commerce websites. Mr Bhagwan knew what my wife wanted but I had no clue. Out of the blue, I got a call from him. He said that he has my wife's gift and that I should bring her along with me to collect it from him. I sensed the happiness in his voice but even after asking him many time he did not reveal it. So we went thinking it would be a watch in her name. I was sure it did not exist but with HMT you never know as HMT is full of surprises. So we went there confused, but to our pleasant surprise it was the elegance G06 watch aka the gold biscuit watch from HMT. The excitement of my wife knew no bounds. She is a cheerful person but the twinkle in her eye and her excitement on that day will forever be in my memory. We got the watch and pretty soon the happiness was shared with the entire family.

Now my search for the gents version G10 increased. I was able to track one in the Tumkur showeoom. So i travelled all the way only to be told that it wasn't there. My search continues to this day. If you come across a G10 for sale then please let me know.

A little bit more about the watch. HMT released these Elegance G10 watches in the 90s. G06 = Gold case and bracelet + .06 gram 18 krt fine gold plaque on the dial. This is the ladies variant. Gents variant is G10 = Gold case and bracelet + 1 gram gold plaque on the dial. These are quartz movement (calibre 2050) watches and have a 5 micron 23.5 k gold plating on the case and bracelet.Its water resistant and has a stainless steel watch back. The sapphire glass crystal is scratch resistant.This watch comes in a larger dimension for men and smaller dimension for ladies.

Another interesting thing about this watch is it's bracelet. This unique bracelet is made out of the scrap left after cutting metal plates as part of the watch making process.

The watch is unique, thus rare and collectible. If you get one grab it else let me know and I will pick it up.

G06 ( Ladies watch)

G10 (Gent's Watch)

(Pic courtesy Tarun Agarwal)

Thank you.
My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/hmtwatchcollector

When HMT Sona spoke to me

The charm of this watch is beyond definition. Not every watch has people rooting for it for generations. Initially when I bought this watch I kept it in my collection as a possession. Never to be worn as I thought it was not something that I could carry with elan.

Then one day the adventurer side of my watch collector personality overpowered my neural intelligence and I ended up with the golden Sona on my wrist. I clearly remember wearing it with a white shirt. I kept it kidnapped under the cuff of my shirt but such is it's aura that it kept oozing out of its confinements.

People who follow my choice of watches every day were quick to observe. "Hey buddy what are you hiding there ?". "Nothing man".."hey guys looks like a special day he is wearing a very special watch." "Ok guys" said I as I gave up " it's a gold plated watch, HMT SONA.. happy now" said I as if I had committed a crime. "Dude!! you know what my father had this watch. It looks super cool. Can you help me get him one". Pretty soon my watch was showered with appreciation. I looked at the watch and she glowed back at me. I heard her say.." you don't carry me off, its the other way round sonny". I smiled back..

Like Father Like Daughter

When my daughter was born, i was the happiest man on earth. My joy knew no bounds. I always wanted a daughter and i already had a name in my mind - Kaveri. The lifeline of Karnataka and Tamil nadu. I really loved the name but when it came to the naming ceremony i was severely opposed by majority and i could not name my own daughter. This was much before my fascination of HMT watches. Years passed and i became enamored with HMT watches. I was surprised when i came to know that i have a namesake watch from HMT and after alot of legging around, i acquired one. Much later i was going through the HMT pricelist one day and i came across HMT Kaveri. My daughter was sitting next to me and she knew how I wanted to name her Kaveri. She requested me to get that watch for her. Within a few days i bought one for her. When I bought it, we were surprised to see the striking resemblance it has with HMT Prashanth. Though HMT Prashanth is an automatic watch and Kaveri a hand winding watch they do look inspired by eachother. I couldn't name my daughter Kaveri but HMT created a watch so similar to the one her dad owns now. My daughter is too young to wear an HMT Kaveri now but one day i am sure she will wear it with a lot of pride.

HMT Kaveri on my daughter's wristth automatic- My Namesake

HMT Kaveri on my Daughter's wrist

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.

Vintage HMT Tareeq - Story of a survivor.

A brief introduction - One of the earliest known HMT Tareeq watches were quite similar to Janata watches. They had Pie Pan shaped dials with a date window. These looked inspired from Citizen Homer date version watches. They came in GP as well as Stainless Steel cases with (to the best of my knowledge) milky white, Steel sunburst finish, yellow,grey and black dials.

The Gold Plated case, indices and hands Vintage Tareeq

The Stainless Steel Tareeq

Coming to the story of the vintage Tareeq watch that i want to share with you.First of all please accept my apologies, if you don't like the dilapidated looks of my watch. I found this watch over a weekend visit to the scrap market. I have a habit of checking watches even if they are under a rubble of discarded watches. I found it in in much worse condition than what you see here. It's crystal had popped off and the watch was lying face down in dirt. Its dial had accumulated mud which was mingled in adhesive flowing from a can lying next to it. The good thing was that the watch had its case back and hands secured. I would usually not think twice before walking away from such a watch but then it seemed, as if, the watch was looking up to me to get it rescued from where it was lying without affection and in a state of neglect. I took the watch in exchange of a price that made the transaction worth it for the seller. I brought it home, where it stayed on my desk for two days with me trying patiently every night, brushing-off dirt and adhesive from its face.  I did all that I could to reveal its long last self of the dial. Once.the crystal was replaced I wound it and it ticked back to life, yes...it ticked back to life like a survivor whose heart kept ticking under the debris of a calamity. The date function worked just as it should. A few months back, I had brought a strap which looked as if it had lost its color due to exposure and age. I could not find an appropriate companion for this strap, little did I know then that a match for it was lying under rubble. They look happy together now and let me say that this is one watch that I respect a lot and which has given me a lot of satisfaction for the time I invested in it. It's like an old friend on my wrist who has seen a lot in the last 35 years of its existence.

The Watch after cleaning

With its new strap

Manufatured in 1982 in Bangalore factory of HMT watches

Friends, I urge you to go out and search for yourself watches that are waiting for you under similar conditions.They might not look great but if you give your personal attention to them they will give you a satisfaction that is unparalleled to, if I may dare to say even a new watch.

As always, I look forward to hearing back from you. It motivates me and encourages me to keep on with this journey of exploring HMT watches. You can also check out my Video blogs on YouTube here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/HMTwatchespicturegallery

A lucky find – HMT Rakhee

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.

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.

Dard ka Rishta - HMT Kanchan.

Due to a physical ailment ailment, I have to attend physiotherapy sessions. During the sessions, amidst the casual chitchat, I usually keep gazing at my watch admiring it's beauty. A few days back, I had this HMT Kanchan watch on my wrist, the physiotherapist said, "My father used to wear an HMT Kanchan watch too. He got it for his marriage and used to wear it every day." "Really, that's great..would love to see it", - I asked. "It must be still with him, he was buried with his watch on his wrist, his beloved watch......". I murmured an apology and a stony silence resumed between us for the rest of the session. "Can you please wear this watch tomorrow as well?" - She requested. From that day, I wear this watch every day to the session. She loves looking at it and sharing fond memories of her father and how badly she misses him, but now in a more cheerful manner.In a way, these sessions help both of us in getting relieved of our pains. I am amazed by how a familiar watch could connect two unfamiliar people. In our case, we are connected by a Dard ka Rishta (Related by pain) thanks to the HMT Kanchan watch. I intend to gift her this watch on the last day of our session, will update all of you on her reaction.

(Edited for sharing an update) I am required to continue with physiotherapy for a few more weeks but luckily i got an option to attend the session at my office during the working hours itself. I updated my physiotherapist at the hospital about this development. I told her, how much i appreciate her sharing the dear memories of her late father and that i would want her to keep the watch as a parting gift. To my dismay, she politely refused to accept my request. She said her organization does not allow her to accept gifts from customers, it would be unethical on her part to accept the watch from me. I decided not to pester her as i could not ask her to do anything that can be interpreted unethical. She thanked me for the offer and said that she enjoyed and would always remember our discussions. I told her, that though i would have been much happier, had she accepted the watch as a gift. Nonetheless, i understand and appreciate her decision and that every time i would wear this watch, it would remind me of her and her father .

Dear friends,not every story has an ending as we expect it to be, but then, that's life and who knows, there might be another story which is getting unfolded waiting for an audience.