HMT'S SECOND WIND

From flight cockpits to clerical offices, HMT once united India's wrists across the boundaries of class, creed, and career. Now, decades after its founding, a design lab is leading the push to bring it back for the 21st century, stronger than ever

- By Sharan Sanil

For decades, Hindustan Machine Tools or HMT was more than just a watch brand.

Dubbed the “timekeeper of the nation,” its watches marked weddings, exam milestones, and everyday rituals across India. From heads of state to factory staff, slipping on an HMT was once a democratic symbol of progress. It was a product that transcended class and geography: affordable enough to be bought from a small-town showroom yet dignified enough to sit on the wrist of a prime minister.

But by the late 1980s and '90s, the tide turned. Quartz technology arrived cheap and fast, Titan seized the design and marketing high ground, and HMT—burdened by bureaucratic inertia—fell behind. When liberalisation opened India’s doors to foreign imports, the brand’s mechanical charm was swamped. HMT was finally liquidated in 2016, leaving behind a nation’s worth of nostalgia and a swelling grey market of fakes.

That nostalgia never truly disappeared. In August 2024, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy reignited hope by announcing a government committee to study HMT’s revival. The idea briefly stirred headlines—Kumaraswamy even bought vintage HMTs at a festival and presented one to his son—but momentum soon fizzled. The state's attention shifted elsewhere, and the brand slid back into limbo. Into that vacuum stepped a group of watch lovers who also happen to be design professionals: NYUCT Design Labs, a Mumbai-based venture design collective.

WHY HMT STILL MATTERS

For Manojeet Bhujabal, a partner at NYUCT, the case for revival begins with memory but extends into hard business logic. “We all grew up with HMTs in our families. These watches have lasted 30-35 years and still tick. Quartz can't match that kind of soul,” he says.