HMT Deepak Mechanical Watch

Today's watch is one from an unusual country of manufacture. I've had a lot from Japan, China, USA, UK, and Switzerland, but this is the first from India.

The watch is made by HMT which stands for Hindustan Machine Tools. It is owned by the Indian government, and has been making machine tools since the early 1950s. In 1961 it entered a collaboration with Citizen watches to build a watch factory, and produced it's first watches in 1962. They are still making watches, but the tools are old, and production is a very low quantity.

This model has the hand wound 0251 movement, and the numbering suggests it was made after 1985 in Ranibagh in Northern India. This movement is the same as the Citizen movement, but with some of the cosmetic detailing missing, and is a 17 jewel movement with the Citizen Para Shock shock resistance system. The movement is reasonably smooth with 240 beats per minute.

The watch is called Deepak which means "source of light" in Hindi. HMT themselves only have one Deepak in stock (selling at $45) stating that it is very rare, and it may not be seen for sale again for a while. The Deepak design has a domed glass and gold square with trimmed corners pattern on the face, and is a 3 hand dial design.