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 … ???)
