HMT Limited

HMT Janata

HMT set up a watch manufacturing factory in Bangalore in collaboration with Citizen Watch, a Japanese company, in 1961. The first batch of mechanical (hand wound) wrist watches manufactured here was released by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. The most popular mechanical watch was HMT Janata. Other mechanical watch styles included HMT Pilot, HMT Jhalak (Semi Skeletal), HMT Sona, HMT Braille.

In 1972, HMT expanded its watch manufacturing capacity with a set up alongside the Bangalore Factory to manufacture additional watches. In 1975, the watch factory at Bangalore was further expanded to manufacture main spring, hair spring and shock absorber components.[12] HMT set up additional manufacturing facilities to produce watch components sets at Tumkur in 1978 and at Ranibagh in 1985. The factory at Tumkur was partially converted to manufacture quartz analog watches in collaboration with Citizen. To cater to the niche market, a specialised watch case manufacturing facility was set up at Bangalore in 1983.[12]

Since 1985, HMT Watches had been involved in making floral clocks, solar clocks, international clocks and tower locks, most popular among them being the garden clock in Bangalore. In the year 2000, HMT Watch Business group was re-structured as HMT Watches Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMT Limited.[12]

In September 2014, the Government of India shut down HMT operations in a phased manner. By late 2016, the website for HMT watches was taken down.[13]

In September 2016, the Government of India closed some divisions of HMT: HMT Watches Ltd, HMT Bearings, HMT Tractors, and HMT Chinar Watches Ltd. The main reasons were that the company was making losses for more than a decade. During 2012–13, the company had losses of ₹242 crore on revenues of only ₹11 crore. In contrast, competitor Titan's watch business reported sales of ₹1,675 crore during the same year. The government also tried restructuring it in 1999 to improve its finances but the company continued to make losses. While in the 1980s several new companies entered the market with newer designs and more modern production techniques, HMT is said to have been hobbled by slow decision making and was unable to compete.[14] Machine tools divisions of HMT in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi (Kalamassery) are still operational and catering industrial and defence sectors of India and abroad. The Government of India is mulling takeover of HMT by Ordnance Factory Board.[15][16]