Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT): The time of our lives

On my 10th birthday I received a very valuable present from my father, my first wrist watch and it was an HMT 'Janata'. Are you surprised? I am sure you are. because if you were born in the 60's and 70's HMT was a premium watch brand, long before the likes of Tag Heuer and Longines were available freely in India, it was HMT that was the time keeper of the entire nation.

I remember the watch as if it was just yesterday that I received it. It had a grey background with a leather strap. The dials and letters were white in colour. It was the pride of my wardrobe and an envy of my peers.

HMT was set up by the government of India in 1953, and their job was to manufacture machine tools. Soon HMT diversified into Tractors, Watches, printing machinery, metal forming presses, die casting & plastic processing machinery, CNC systems & bearings.

HMT's tractor division was set up in the 1970's in technical collaboration with M/s MOTOKOV, Czechoslovakia. HMT started the operation with the manufacture of 25 HP tractor at the manufacturing plant in Pinjore, Haryana state. Over the years, it has developed tractors ranging from 25 HP to 75 HP.

On wikipedia I found this image of a HMT tractor serving on board INS Virat, which looks awesome.

(Image Source: Wikipedia)



But the focus of this piece is on the watch division, which prospered well under some very good leadership from its managers till the 80's. In the late 80's Japanese and Chinese exports started flooding the market and suddenly HMT was facing competition from sports and digital watch makers like Casio and Seiko. Also at the same time Timex entered the market to put further pressure on HMT.

HMT responded with some very ill thought of moves, like introducing 'Astra' a digital watch, needless to say the brand could not survive under the competition from the Japanese and soon sank. I had been gifted an Astra before my 8th final exams and the watch did not last long, it had actually begun to rust and soon the battery died out. I never used an HMT again, preferring to go with Titan since then.

The HMT watches have some great brand that still command a brand presence in the market. The most popular HMT watch remains the 'Janata'. Other popular brands remain 'Sona', 'Rajat', 'Gansan', and HMT 'Pilot'.

(HMT ASDL 02 Source: Watchuseek forum)

I also found a very interesting thread on HMT watches on the 'Watchuseek' forum. The link to the thread is below.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f7/my-new-hmt-pilot-watch-india-thread-no-3-3-a-143071.html


I think it is important for us to keep this legacy of an Indian watch brand alive at a time when many of our pillars of independent India are soon disappearing. We can do the following to keep HMT brand relevant.

1) Gift HMT watches for corporate and other gifting occasions.
2) Collect watches from our earlier generation and restore them as these would indeed be collectors pieces.
3)generate awareness about HMT to the newer generation. i am sure the MTV generation has never heard of HMT leave alone seen an HMT Watch


HMT is headquartered at Bangalore. Successful technology absorption in all product groups through collaborations with world renowned manufacturers and further strengthened by continuous in-house R&D. Today, HMT comprises six subsidiaries under the ambit of a holding company, which also manages the tractors business directly.

The HMT corporate website is http://www.hmtindia.com/

and all the current watch brands can be seen here http://www.hmtindia.com/html/frame.asp?page=p-s_watches.htm.

One interesting things about HMT is probably it is the only watch manufacturer in India to produce a braille watch to help the vision less tell the time.

Lets Watch for the time of our lives: HMT.