Bangalore: Just when the global watch industry is at an inflection point, with
consumer technology firms like Apple, Motorola and Samsung redefining the very ethos of a watch, India’s oldest timekeeper is set to bid adieu.
The watch division of
Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), set up in 1961, just didn’t keep time with time itself.
As customer expectations changed -- from a watch as a
timekeeping object to being a fashion and status symbol -- HMT didn’t change, says Raghu B Viswanath, MD, Vertebrand, a brand consultancy firm.
“They just kept to their original
tagline of being Timekeepers to the Nation,” says Viswanath.
As a brand, HMT emerged from the public sector stable to take the country by storm. A rare feat even today for a state-run enterprise. “Once upon a time, it was the pride of the nation. People aspired to have HMT watches,” recollects HG Raghunath, CEO, Watches and Accessories division,
Titan Company Limited. In the 70s, HMT’s Rajat automatic had a waiting period of over 10 months.
Raghunath was among the core four-member team at HMT who set up the company’s quartz technology division in 1979. “It’s sad to see what’s happening to a company that dominated watch manufacturing in India for three decades,” says the former HMT veteran.
Up to the 80s, the consumer yearned for a watch with time being the emphasis. Come the 90s, and the inflection point was reached when consumer focus shifted away from timekeeping.
“The early range of Raga watches by Titan, to an extent, represented the ethos of a nation that was changing in its choice,” says brand expert Harish Bijoor. He adds that HMT is the classic case of a company that got caught in a time warp of its own making.
As marketing head of Titan from 1993 to 1998, Viswanath of Vertebrand adds that internal surveys during those years showed the differences between HMT and Titan were minimal on functional aspects. But Titan had a strong dominance over HMT in design and aesthetics. Titan’s first marketing tagline ‘You owe it to yourself’ reflected the mood of the consumer. “That tagline changed the watch-buying experience in the country. It moulded a watch into a status symbol,” adds the former Titan marketing head.