Hindustan Machine Tools, aka HMT is a state owned manufacturing company that primarily manufactures industrial machines and tools, tractors and watches. The millenial generation, i.e the generation of people born after 1996, may not associate much with this name, but for everyone who belongs to the generations before that, just the mention of the name HMT will bring back nostalgia as this was one of the first indigineous watch making company in India. Not only that, they went on to make India's first Day date watch, including models with the day mentioned in Hindi, India's first braille watch, among others.
The central government recently has decided to close down five sick public sector companies, of which three are HMT units - HMT Bearing, HMT Watches and HMT Chinar watches. As per this news report, this is based on the 14th Finance Commission's recommendation that government-owned loss making companies in non-strategic sectors can be considered for closure.
So what about it you may ask. Well being a part of the pre-millenial generation, I really did not want to miss the chance to snatch a tiny slice of this piece of history. So I went ahead and got myself an HMT watch! I have never had one, so that was one more argument in favour of the decision to go ahead and buy the watch.
I was surprised to find that HMT Watches has reasonably good website and has an online ordering system as well! Yes the website does not look as snazzy as some other e-commerce websites are, but nevertheless, I was able to browse through the product catalog smoothly, and the payment process went through fine. Being a government enterprise, I was sceptical about order fulfillment, and was mentally bracing for cold response regarding order updates. But much to my surprise, my very own HMT watch is in my hands today 3 days post placing my order!!
Very happy to own this piece of history!!
Here are some pictures:-
The central government recently has decided to close down five sick public sector companies, of which three are HMT units - HMT Bearing, HMT Watches and HMT Chinar watches. As per this news report, this is based on the 14th Finance Commission's recommendation that government-owned loss making companies in non-strategic sectors can be considered for closure.
So what about it you may ask. Well being a part of the pre-millenial generation, I really did not want to miss the chance to snatch a tiny slice of this piece of history. So I went ahead and got myself an HMT watch! I have never had one, so that was one more argument in favour of the decision to go ahead and buy the watch.
I was surprised to find that HMT Watches has reasonably good website and has an online ordering system as well! Yes the website does not look as snazzy as some other e-commerce websites are, but nevertheless, I was able to browse through the product catalog smoothly, and the payment process went through fine. Being a government enterprise, I was sceptical about order fulfillment, and was mentally bracing for cold response regarding order updates. But much to my surprise, my very own HMT watch is in my hands today 3 days post placing my order!!
Very happy to own this piece of history!!
Here are some pictures:-
