Watch Collecting- My New Hobby?

"All men love Cars, Guns and Watches". This is a cliche but I think it's applicable to me. I wasn't sure about the watches part but I think I am falling for them. What changed? Well, my friend introduced me to HMT Watches.

History of HMT Watch

HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools) was the Indian government-owned watch company that was incorporated in 1953. In 1961, the watch division was started with a manufacturing plant in Bangalore. HMT collaborated with Citizen Watch from Japan to borrow their technology. Now, Japanese brands like Seiko and Citizen were masters of making watches with hand winding mechanism (No quartz back then).

Having that same Japanese movement in a HMT watch was a big deal. 1st batch of Hand Wound Wrist Watches manufactured here was released by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. The company released popular models like Pilot, Janata, Jhalak, Sona, and Braile (For blind people). Other international Watch companies evolved over time and ditched their old design and technology. But, HMT continues making the initial models until it closed its operations in 2016. This company was generating big losses and had to be shut.

Why buy HMT now?

The quartz watch movement has taken over now and mechanical watches have become a rare sight. Those who appreciate the mechanical movements of a handwinding watch or automatic watch will love the fact that vintage watches like HMT, Allwyn, Seiko, Vostok are very affordable. Whereas, collecting vintage Luxury watches like Rolex, Audemars, and Hublot is an expensive hobby.

How to buy one?

One can go to hmtindia.in to find some leftover pieces. To find vintage pieces, there are plenty options on ebay. Even facebook have many watch collectors group where you will often find a 'for sale' post.

HMT Old Advertisement