First HMT in the house!
For the unknown, Hindustan Machine Tools or HMT is a 70-year-old Indian machine tool manufacturing company. Their watch division, HMT Watches, was established in 1961. Currently, there are five HMT watch factories across the country.
This Q304 is one of their entry-level HQ series models featuring a quartz movement, caliber 2080. It's a classic 36 mm watch with a 41.7 mm lug-to-lug distance. For the HMT enthusiasts, my piece is a 2004 production from the Banglore 2nd factory.
I really like how it fits my wrist and how the ultrathin seconds hand ticks over the milky white dial. The bracelet is not to my liking, will replace it with a leather strap soon. Overall, a great timepiece for its tiny price tag!
I promise I'd never use "A Man & His Watch" as a prop.
The bracelet always gets the boot when it's time to allocate machining budget.
That's pretty interesting how you got all of the information on yours. I have no clue about mine. lol I did replace the leather strap it came with. I put a nice rubber Hadley Roma sport strap on it. The strap it came with is cheap feeling. Your bracelet looks a lot better than what I got.
That's pretty interesting how you got all of the information on yours. I have no clue about mine. lol I did replace the leather strap it came with. I put a nice rubber Hadley Roma sport strap on it. The strap it came with is cheap feeling. Your bracelet looks a lot better than what I got.
That's a beautiful Chirag!
There's a lot of aftermarket/ modded-dial HMTs out there. I'm no expert in figuring that but if your case back has any numbers, I can try to decode the factory location and year of production. Do share a photo if you like to know.
That's a beautiful Chirag!
There's a lot of aftermarket/ modded-dial HMTs out there. I'm no expert in figuring that but if your case back has any numbers, I can try to decode the factory location and year of production. Do share a photo if you like to know.
Thank you. That would be awesome if you could find out. I know that there are a lot of aftermarket ones out there. I'm not sure if this one is. If you can find out that would be great. Here are the numbers on the dial and back. I hope that helps.
Thank you. That would be awesome if you could find out. I know that there are a lot of aftermarket ones out there. I'm not sure if this one is. If you can find out that would be great. Here are the numbers on the dial and back. I hope that helps.
I'm not sure about the authenticity of this one either. But hey, you like the watch that's all that matters.
Coming to the numbers — the number of the dial, 0231 is the calibre. It's the same one used on Janata, Pilot, and Kohinoor models.
Now on the back, it says 051586 — 05 means it was made in factory number 5, which is the Ranibagh factory in Uttar Pradesh. 15 means it was manufactured in the year 2015. 86 is the case type number.
Thanks Shane, for sharing the photos. It's always a pleasure to see old HMTs, especially on the hands of people outside of India!
I'm not sure about the authenticity of this one either. But hey, you like the watch that's all that matters.
Coming to the numbers — the number of the dial, 0231 is the calibre. It's the same one used on Janata, Pilot, and Kohinoor models.
Now on the back, it says 051586 — 05 means it was made in factory number 5, which is the Ranibagh factory in Uttar Pradesh. 15 means it was manufactured in the year 2015. 86 is the case type number.
Thanks Shane, for sharing the photos. It's always a pleasure to see old HMTs, especially on the hands of people outside of India!
That's awesome! Thank you so much! That's some very interesting information. I have always had an interest of HMT. I try to collect watches from different places of the world. This one caught my eye so I got it. I don't see them very often. It's a really good running watch. It keeps time perfectly. I have seen one or two here on WC. That's what inspired me to get one. Again Thank You!
#hmt quartz are still good option 😁