[bhd812]

I agree A watch runs best on the wrist, but when you have 3-4 for work and 3 for play then there just is not enough TIME to wear them all. I usuaully try to wear my pam, Milgauss, and Navi all in a day...funny thing is once you get the fever for wearing them you would be surprised on the equal time each of the three can get while you are at home. But the work watches get one day on and three days off each which means they sit in the winder a bit too much. sometimes i feel for one of the watches and wear one for 2-4 days strait though. either way i always believed a winder just gives you a few days of not wearing the watch and still have it ready to go, after a few days the watches timing goes crazy. I wore my Capeland to work last night after it has been in the winder for three weeks solid (i only put it in there because it is a dual winder and i had the slot open) and the timing was -10 mins yet whenever i wear the Capeland everyday or every other day the timing is spot on or plus a few seconds. Another odd thing i found is the Navi works perfect in only one certain slot out of 6 i have, if i move the Navi to any other slot with the same settings the timing goes off but in this one slot it works perfect...weird!
i had the Milgauss for a month now and it has lost 25 seconds since i picked her up though and the Navi lost 30 seconds in the same month while the Pam gained two minutes (i can not tell seconds on the Pam 112). Lately the Pam and Milgauss are fighting for wrist time while i am at home, the Pam had more last week while the Milgauss is being rocked mostly this week....this is why i love watches, what other hobby can you truly enjoy your time like this one?
 
I will give the Milgauss tonight out of the winder like Rolex says to see if i can gain a few seconds on her...then again she is telling time pretty dang good now...hmmm

 

[ianmedium]

...

 

[immtbiker]

Does anyone know if Omega makes a Speedmaster or Seamaster that had  mineral crystal backplate, as well as the front one, and if so, do you have any links? lso, I am interested in a rubber strap and not a stainless one.
TIA,

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Does anyone know if Omega makes a Speedmaster or Seamaster that had  mineral crystal backplate, as well as the front one, and if so, do you have any links? lso, I am interested in a rubber strap and not a stainless one.
TIA,

Didn't they, at one time, make a Speedmaster with hexalite front and back??  I think it was a commemorative moon watch? 

 

[r1n7r4h]

Quote:

Quote:

Does anyone know if Omega makes a Speedmaster or Seamaster that had  mineral crystal backplate, as well as the front one, and if so, do you have any links? lso, I am interested in a rubber strap and not a stainless one.
TIA,

Didn't they, at one time, make a Speedmaster with hexalite front and back??  I think it was a commemorative moon watch? 

I believe they only made the 3752.50 and the current 3753.50. The 3752 was the hesalite crystal with sapphire back, while the 3753 was sapphire on both sides.

 

[immtbiker]

I am seeing the Speedmaster Legend which is a beautiful chrono with a carbon fiber face, but everywhere I look, I am seeing, "this product is no longer available."
It appears that it had a mineral crystal front and back. That's the one I want.

 

[appophylite]

I was on Watchuseek a couple of months back, and read a thread about a forum-goer's recent acquisition of an HMT Pilot mechanical winding wristwatch. HMT is an Indian company (Hindustan Machine and Tool, and their watchmaking arm has been around almost as long as India has had independence in modern years. In any case, their mechanical watches are all based off of 1950's movements that they made sourced from a license from Citizen. Citizen no longer manufactures said movement, but HMT still does, and still constructs entire mechanical watches in-house and sell for under under 700 Rupees ($15). In fact, if I am correct, with Titan, HMT and Maxima representing the three biggest watchmakers in India, HMT is the only one that constructs entire mechanical watches completely in-house. Well, as always, I got to drooling over them, and lets face it, at $15 how could you possibly go wrong? My parents were in India last month so I asked them to see if any AD still existed (Titan far outsells all other Indian-made watches by leaps and bounds), so that I could pick on up for myself and another for one of my friends who is also a watch nut. They said they'd see what they could do.
 
Yesterday, I came home from work, and what happens to be sitting on my desk? :
 

 
Crack the box open, expecting to see a couple of watches sitting in there, and......
 

 
But, wait! There's More!
 

 
Ask for 2, and I get - 15 (Three weren't pictured as I put them aside for my friend. Of the 12 pictured above, one is actually an Titan quartz watch that belonged to my Uncle (picture 2, 2nd from the right). He didn't wear it anymore, and for some reason, all my relatives are tickled pink by the fact that I would rather spend money on old Indian watches that everyone in India ignores rather than buying nice, new, modern quartz watches. The other 11 are:
 
1 HMT Swarna (Quartz movement, gold plated, leather band)
1 HMT Kohioor (17 Jewel, steel case, metal band)
1 HMT Vijay (17 Jewel, steel case, metal band)
1 HMT Janata Deluxe (17 Jewel, steel case, metal band)
1 HMT Janata (17 Jewel, steel case, leather band)
1 HMT Jayanth (17 Jewel, gold plated, leather band)
1 HMT Surya (17 Jewel, gold plated, leather band)
1 HMT Tareeq (17 Jewel, gold plated, metal band)
3 HMT Sona (17 Jewel, gold plated, leather band)
 
11 watches (plus three separate ones probably going to a friend), and combined, the box comes it at almost the same cost as a single Seiko Monster! Can anyone say 'Watch Overload'?

 

[leftnose]

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Does anyone know if Omega makes a Speedmaster or Seamaster that had  mineral crystal backplate, as well as the front one, and if so, do you have any links? lso, I am interested in a rubber strap and not a stainless one.
TIA,

Didn't they, at one time, make a Speedmaster with hexalite front and back??  I think it was a commemorative moon watch? 

I believe they only made the 3752.50 and the current 3753.50. The 3752 was the hesalite crystal with sapphire back, while the 3753 was sapphire on both sides.

Correct.  Display backs were always sapphire.  Makes sense if you think about it as the display back could easily get scratched by a bracelet.
 
Also, many/most people continue to buy the hesalite crystal on front because it has a certain vintage look.  This doesn't really apply to a display back.  Me?  I went for the sapphire sandwich.
 

 

[bhd812]

Dude it is the Tata Nano of the watch world! seriously $15 for a in house movement? need more info and pics please!!!!!!! and of course Congrats!!!!

 

[appophylite]

Quote:

Dude it is the Tata Nano of the watch world! seriously $15 for a in house movement? need more info and pics please!!!!!!! and of course Congrats!!!!

It most totally is! Designed to be 'The People's Watch' in a time when watches were expensive (and most often imported and Swiss), HMT was a government subsidized watch maker which kept watch prices purposely cheap so the common people could afford watches of good quality. As time went on, more watches came on the market and HMT just never really increased their prices. These days, everyone who can afford a watch looks in every other direction. The general consensus in India (not everyone, but general), is that mechanical/automatic watches are antiquated - quartz is the wave of the future. Those who want a watch and want Indian, usually stick to quartz Titan watches, which represent the largest group of watches in India (and, according to the Internet, the World's 5th largest watch manufacturer). You have money and you want to show it? Start looking at import brands. You walk around the Indian streets and guys who want you to know they are successful wear big watches with big names (Armani, Fossil, Boss, Rolex, Breitling, Omega - names that are names, and names that are just fashion boutiques). In all of this, HMT has become a passe brand. No one who has money looks that way, and watch dealers avoid selling them because any stock they hold seems to sit there forever, and the profit margin on them is low since the price is so low to begin with. Every time my parents walked into a watch dealer looking for them, the dealers looked at them funny and tried to convince them to look at their other wares.
 
According to the guys on Watchuseek, who make it their business to know these things, the original movement in the HMT watches made back in the 50s was constructed based off of a license granted by Citizen for use and construction of a movement based on the Citizen 0201 movement. Pic of the Citizen movement:
 

 
In those days, I imagine, the movement was constructed in India, still had a Citizen stamp on it somewhere, and every so often, was quality checked by a Citizen rep. Since then, HMT fully constructs their movement in-house and based on the original design. Took apart the back of my Vijay and took a look:
 

 
Comparing the two pictures - I'd buy that. They definitely look like the same movement in both cases. Of course, this means that HMT uses the same movement today in the 21st Century that they did nearly 60 years ago. Citizen, as far as anyone can tell, has no involvement with HMT anymore, so the movement inside the Vijay above is entirely constructed and QC'd by HMT in India.
 
As for the watches themselves, it turns out that in the last decade, HMT fully consolidated all watch-making operations to 2-3 factories in India. All the parts from mineral glass and plastic crystals for the face, to the dials, hands and cases themselves are also made and put together in these factories. Part of keeping the price down is clearly the fact that many of their models have similar features- the same dial, the same case, the same hands-just put together in different configurations under different names. Unfortunately, HMT does not seem to have any sort of International Distribution arm so the watches are very hard, if not impossible, to find outside of the country. Pretty much the only two ways to get them right now, are either to purchase the ones found on Ebay, which almost always seem to go for $50 or more (absurd profit margins!), or to have a friend who may be coming from a trip to India to try to find a dealer and bring some back.
 
Since you asked for pictures, here are some pictures of some of the more photogenic models my parents acquired (excuse the poor quality).
 
HMT Sona (White Face)

 
HMT Sona (Gold Face)

 
HMT Janata

 
HMT Tareeq

 
HMT Surya

 
HMT Jayanth

 
HMT Kohinoor

 

[mralexosborn]

How well do they keep time? They look quite nice. 

 

[appophylite]

Having run one for only just over a day now, I think it's lost maybe 1 second at best, so at least the watch I'm testing (Sona, white face) is probably going to be somewhere around +-30 seconds or better by the end of the month. That's not too bad IMO considering the design is nearly 60 years old and unchanged. Also, I figure, it wouldn't be hard to improve on that number since the movement is very easy to access without specialized tools, and the regulator arm on the movement is already centered, so I could regulate the watch either way as needed.

 

[mralexosborn]

I want one now. 

 

[bhd812]

Dude in under a month i am going from a Rolex Chronometer to a HMT PARA SHOCK!!!!
 
Talked to a past umm girl i know today that is in India (she was born there and lives there now) about HMT and she is on the hunt for picking a few up cheap for me. then again she has let me down before so just in case anyhow us western peeps could get one for $15 plus shipping?
 
 
Also i am looking into going NATO crazy for my B13, problem is i want to fit the watch/strap on a RHD double fold deployment instead of a buckle. so either i find a cheap band that i can cut the buckle off or find a NATO with a springbar buckle...any help?

 

[appophylite]

Same boat myself, mate! 3 weeks ago, I was lording it up over a new Raymond Weil Chronograph, and all of a sudden, all attention is drawn to a handful of mechanical watches, that individually, price under most budget Casios and Timexes. Needless to say, I think the draw is their links to vintage past and simplicity.
 
Personally, I think if you're interested in acquiring a few HMTs now, your best bet will be your contact in India. I think as long as she lives in a metropolitan city in India (or very close to one), and she has reasonable familiarity with the shopping districts, she stands a good chance of finding a dealer that has a couple in stock. My parents were in Pune and said that instead of looking in the newer shopping districts with the larger malls, they focused on the older districts and 'peths' looking at the smaller dealers who they figured would be more likely to have them. I am pretty sure that HMT's watch manufacturing operations are headquartered in Bangalore, India as is their primary factory, so if your friend lives in Bangalore, you are probably going to score a motherload! Otherwise, unless you have friends/contacts in India who can buy and ship the watches back to you, Western audiences stand a very small chance of acquiring HMT watches. There are a few circulated in Eastern Europe and apparently, Japan has a very small market (mildly ironic considering the HMT movement first originated there, and the movement isn't made there anymore), but I don't know if I'd cast two many dice on making a score through international markets outside of India. As I did mention before, you may get lucky with a fantastic score off of Ebay too. They are always popping up there (I've been watching since about 2 months ago). In particular, the most common ones you'll find on Ebay are the no-longer-produced Broad Arrows, which easily go for $50+ including shipping, and some of the models like the Janata, Jawan, Pilot and Sona. Some people have hit it lucky, winning bids on $20 shipped, but I haven't had that luck yet.
 
If it doesn't pan out for you personally with your friend, shoot me a PM. I have friends who move back and forth to India between semesters and new students are always showing up. If I know there is interest, I might be able to get one of them to look around the next time they are back in India and have them ship or transport the watches back this way at 'cost + shipping'. Only problem with that is that I cannot make guarantees on models and quantities as that would be entirely up to what they find, and time-frames would be based upon the college semester since the winter and summer breaks are when they usually travel.