Ever since news broke out that
HMT Watches is shutting shop, there has been a slew of articles in major
newsmagazines about HMT watches…nostalgic articles about how HMT was the one
and only watch that was available and how people placed orders for specific
models months before and how sturdy these watches were and how they have lasted
decades without repair and how the time-tested hand-winding mechanism gave away
to the more glamourous Titan quartz watches…and so on and so forth and there
was also lament that things could have been better if the whole enterprise was
managed well…
And of course, on the Internet,
there are pages and pages of pictures of people displaying their HMT watches,
their first watch, their wedding watch, their graduation watch and so
on…suddenly there is a lot of interest and people are queueing up to grab
whatever they can and HMT have almost tripled their prices…
And it looks like most people
in India in their late 30s and above have their own HMT watch story…and here is
mine…
As was the custom in many South
Indian families, I got my first watch when I was in the 10th
class…the reason, I think, was that you wrote a ‘public exam’ when in 10th
class and that students needed to manage their time and needed a watch…I too
got one, but how well I managed my time and whether I passed out with flying
colours is a question that is moot…maybe I just ‘passed out’…
On the 1st of
January 1983, I got my HMT Vijay black dial mechanical hand-winding watch…my
father got it for me…I was studying in Milagres High School in Mangalore at
that time…this was the only watch I had till almost 1998 and used it every day…
sometimes I wore it while I nodded off and saw the watch ticking away merrily
in the morning…for 15 years me and my Vijay were inseparable, and then my
brother gifted me a Titan watch and I used to wear these two watches
alternately…and slowly, Vijay went into its box and I got another Titan as a
wedding gift…and the earlier Titan went into its box…
Some five years back, my
youngest brother, who is a watch fanatic, and I were talking watches…I had been
to a Titan showroom and seen some automatic watches and told him about the
various models and how expensive they were and all that…he told me that HMT has
a blue dial & blue strap automatic model which is very good, and not
expensive at all for an automatic watch…and this opened up my second and
continuing affair with HMT watches…and prompted me to take out my first HMT
watch, Vijay, from its box…I wound it up and it started tick-tocking like a
dream and keeps time smoothly …
And here I would like to show
some pictures of my iconic HMT Vijay NL hand-winding mechanical watch, which is
now 31 years old … and still running strong… I wear it occasionally now, now
that it has become an antique and is very precioussss...
Yeah, this is how Vijay NL looks...simple...and sturdy...many of my classmates were sons of fathers working in the "Gulf" in high paying jobs, and they had Casio and Ricoh watches, and I used to look longingly at those watches...now I am glad I got this watch...
A close-up of the face...taken without flash...
Another close-up...this time with flash...
The back...the serial number printed at the back tells the manufacturing unit where the watch was made and also the year of manufacture, so some HMT watch enthusiasts say...
Haan...can you see that pin? he he...I don't know what that is called, but that link came out and I didn't have the patience to get another one fixed or maybe when that happened I didn't have money or something...anyway, I put a pin into that slot and bent it upwards...this must have happened twenty years ago, I don't remember exactly, but the pin has stayed on...
Three decades of scratches...if only random lines could speak...!!!
This is the front and back of the 'Certificate of Guarantee' book ...
This is the 'Certificate of Guarantee...' see the date? 1 - 1 - 83
The receipt ... watch purchased at Vaman Nayak Sons, Mangalore ... for a princely sum of Rs. 258 ... that's my father's name there on top ... he paid for it!!
