My Brother’s HMT Chethan…his 10th Class Gift…

As is the tradition in our family, my younger brother too got an HMT watch as a kind of ‘arrival’ gift when he was in the tenth standard (matriculation).  We were living in Shimoga at that time and father was posted in Bangalore.  My father’s elder brother was working as a scientist in a defence-related lab and got the watch for my brother through their supply store.  The watch was purchased in September 1986 and cost Rs.258. 

Actually I was not aware of this particular watch that my brother had.  Maybe I had forgotten all about it.  When I was writing the post on my HMT Vijay, I was able to locate the receipt and the guarantee book and inside the guarantee book, I found this pink coloured receipt for an HMT Chethan…I wondered who owned the watch…then my brother called me up and said he had seen my post on HMT Vijay and had dug out his own 10^th class gift watch and that it was ticking away merrily and that he was now wearing it regularly…HMT Chethan, he said…ah ha, so, the watch whose receipt I had belonged to him…

I told him I had the receipt for his watch and he was surprised…I then asked him to send me photos of his watch…he then sent photos and I sent him a scanned copy of the receipt…here are the photos…in another two years this watch would also be thirty years old…

Haan…BTW, my younger brother, Jayanagaraja Rao, a banker, used to look like Pete Sampras when he was younger and lighter and now that he is older and heavier, he tends to look like Mohanlal…from one particular angle…

Jiyo mere bhai…so, when are you giving me the Pilot??

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 …  

My SSLC gift ... HMT Vijay ... 30 years ago ...

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 10^th class…the reason, I think, was that you wrote a ‘public exam’ when in 10^th 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 1^st 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!!