Here’s Why HMT Watches Mean so Much to All Sixties’ Desi Kids

HMT will close down but will always remain special to Indians, especially those who lived through the 60s.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Let’s rewind to when watches were the norm if you wanted to keep track of the time. You see, smartphones hadn’t been born yet. It was then that HMT watches became timekeepers to an entire nation.

On January 7, 2016, time officially stopped for HMT Watches. It was announced that all three of its factories would be closed and the employees would be offered “attractive voluntary retirement schemes”.

HMT had long been labelled a failing enterprise. The iconic brand of the sixties, unfortunately, could not keep pace with current times and the intense global competition.

But they were a beloved possession for many when they were initially launched decades ago.

The Indians of the sixties were eager to make a mark and compete with the rest of the world. But to be able to keep up with its frenetic pace, they needed to keep up with time, no?

Hindustan Machine Tools, a state-owned enterprise, collaborated with Citizen Watch Company in Japan and set up its first watch manufacturing unit in 1961 in Bangalore. The first batch of watches was released by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

By 1976, over a million watches were being produced from HMT’s three factories. There were 16 varieties of watches to choose from, with intense bragging rights reserved for those who possessed the cooler makes!

And even though, at first, 100% of the components were imported from Japan, by the 1970s, almost 84% of the parts used in making these watches were indigenous.

Isn’t it bitter irony then, that at a time when India is pushing aggressively for Make in India, an iconic Indian brand bites the dust?

HMT may not mean so much for us (millennials), but it does hold some solid nostalgia for our parents and grandparents – those who lived through the sixties. My grandmother still flaunts an HMT on her wrist, while my father has preserved one in his closet for decades.