There was a time, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when winding an HMT watch was an integral part of a person’s day, recalls Jayapalan P, Executive Associate at HMT’s Heritage Centre and Museum. “A hand-wound watch works for 24 hours,” he recalls, with a smile. “The person would wind the watch, read the newspaper and have a cup of coffee. That was the basic routine.”
Not anymore, however, with mobile phones and smart watches taking over the world of timekeeping. Wristwatches, like sundials, water clocks, hourglasses and pendulums, are on their way to becoming a museum piece.
The HMT Heritage Centre and Museum, which opened to the public in 2019, is all about preserving a wristwatch’s legacy. Housed in the former bungalow of the company’s chairman, the quaint, beautifully-curated museum, spread over a lush 4.14-acre green campus in Jalahalli, offers a nostalgia-hued peek into the workings of India’s oldest watch company.
