If you have the Time…

Pankaja Srinivasan feels a sense of sadness when she realises that HMT watches may not be there by the time Deepavali comes around next year.

October 21, 2014 06:58 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 07:38 pm IST

HMT Watches that may  not be made anymore. Photo: special arrangement

HMT Watches that may not be made anymore. Photo: special arrangement

I step into the HMT showroom on Avanashi Road to change the strap of my prized possession, an old fashioned, sensible analogue watch that only tells time. It is like stepping into a dimly-lit past. Glitzy posters with glamorous models and celebrities are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, there are only small posters that promise steadfastness and quality, nothing else. Old-fashioned glass-topped display cabinets hold a modest number of watches. A lone salesperson hovers around. He is L. Darius. “Only HMT fans come here,” he says. He is one himself and says he owns 30 watches, all from the same company. Darius has worked with HMT for 33 years. He was with the factory in Tumkur and is now looking after the Avanashi Road showroom.

Suddenly, there is an influx of visitors to the showroom. Even Mr. Darius looks a bit surprised. A gentleman is peering at a row of watches. I ask him if he is planning to buy something and Leonard Mervin Sinclair says he is getting watches for his two college-going sons. “My father presented me with an HMT watch when I completed High School. I still have it. It is the kind you wind every night. I want to buy them something similar.”

Darius points to where the winding watches are kept. A couple of more people come in and we strike up a conversation. Most of us in the showroom remember being presented with a watch when we turned 13! And recall the ritual of winding our watches the last thing before we went to bed.

A. Chandrasekaran is also buying a watch. “It is an old and reliable brand and I want one for my son who is an IT professional,” he says. Another customer who has come in with her uncle is Nithya Narasimhan, a Class 11 student. He has brought her to the store so that she can choose the one she wants. He tells her how his dad had bought him an HMT watch when finished school. He also tells her that HMT is India’s first wrist watch manufacturer and it is a matter of pride to own one. “You will probably be the only one in your school wearing an HMT watch,” he says and Nithya is sold! She looks at the watches with more interest and picks an elegant rectangular one with a navy dial.

I suddenly remember HMTs catch line — “If you have the inclination, we have the time.” What a wonderful line. I Whatsapp my brother-in-law in Bahrain asking if I can buy him an HMT watch too and he responds immediately. “Sure. It was my first watch in school!” I Whatsapp my daughter the photographs of a couple of watches and ask her if she wants one, and she responds, “Oh cool, please.”

In the meanwhile, Nithya’s uncle has decided to buy himself a wind-up watch and tells Mr. Darius he will come back with his children when they are home for Christmas. I get my new strap and can’t help buying myself another watch, this time, one with a black dial and a metal strap. Then, I pick up an identical one for my sister-in-law. And, we leave the store, one by one, smiling.

As I leave, I ask Mr. Darius which year HMT began manufacturing wrist watches. It was the same year I was born!

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