My Father's HMT Pilot (Black Dial) ... C. 1973

There are two things I remember distinctly about this watch from my school days … this HMT Pilot that my father used to wear every day had a Velcro strap … and the hand and numbers would glow in the dark … and both were fascinating things for me … that ‘prrk prrk’ of the Velcro strap being removed provided a strange delight and we would wait every night after lights off to see the glowing hands and numbers … we used to call it the ‘radium’ watch … 

This Pilot is like a family watch for all three brothers …  we have grown up seeing this watch on our father’s wrist … I don’t remember seeing any other watch … I asked him when he had bought it … he was not so sure of the year, but said it is easily 40 years old … he had purchased it when he was a clerk in the bank where he worked all his life till his retirement … then (even now) Pilot was a coveted watch and was not available easily and freely and one had to book in advance and all that … so, father asked his eldest brother (now late, who lived in Bangalore, sort of home of HMT) to get a Pilot for him and he in turn had asked a friend of his who worked in HMT Bangalore to manage a piece for him … and that’s how this Pilot came to live in our house forty years ago … he must have purchased it around 5 years after I was born … 1973 or thereabouts … and he paid Rs.90/- for it …

Then, when I started getting interested in HMT watches a few years back, I wondered  what happened to father's Pilot … he no longer wore it … he wears an HMT Surya now (my mother’s name … HMT made some of these older generation chaps fling discretion out of the window!!!  Just check some wrists discreetly!!!) … anyway, before I lose direction over discretion, let me get back to this depiction (trying too hard, eh Jai?) … then when I went to Bangalore a couple of years back, I came to know that my youngest brother (a passionate watchman, he even had a separate drawer made in his new flat for his watches!) had retrieved father’s Pilot and my grandfather’s Kiran from our home in Shimoga and had them serviced and strapped (he he…) … and he graciously gave both watches to me … I hope he doesn’t regret that decision now … and that’s how I got hold of father’s Pilot …

And quite recently, I looked up on the Internet and discovered that this Pilot belongs to one of the earliest batches that were manufactured … I got to know that Pilots of that vintage had ‘Water Protected’ on the dial along with ‘Para Shock’ and ’17 Jewels’ … and on the back cover, ‘Water Dust Protected’ & ‘Shock Proof’ … later Pilots no longer had ‘Water Protected’ on the dial, and on the back cover ‘Shock Resistant’ instead of ‘Shock Proof’ and ‘Water Dust Protected’ is done away with … I don’t have a later (or recent) Pilot to compare with, so I think I will hold on and check with my friend Hari, and if he chips in with his inputs, nothing like that … (I am trying to locate a recent Pilot, and efforts are still on … anybody out there … ???)

 The vint-age shows on the watch … the hands and numbers no longer glow at night … but like a true blue HMT mechanical watch, it tick tocks along merrily when keyed up … and I miss that prrk prrk of the Velcro strap …