Chennai | Meet the Madras Watch Collectors Group who swap precious timepieces and stories

Discover the history and passion behind various watches at Madras Watch Collectors Group, a community of enthusiasts and experts.

Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) began its first watch-making unit in Bengaluru in 1961 when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided that India required a watch of its own. Experts from Japan’s well-known Citizen Watch were chartered to provide the technical knowhow to engineers of this newly established Indian brand intent on creating a functional, affordable and most importantly ‘Indian’ mechanical (hand-wound) wrist watch.

An important part of this knowledge-sharing exercise was teaching the engineers the ‘020’ or ‘0201’ movement — a mechanism that helps dictate the intricate movement of cogs and wheels inside these watches. The HMT staff, now experts after training, created an in-house movement of their own, calling it the ‘0231’.

On Sunday, watch collector and co-founder of Madras Watch Collectors Group, N Guru Prasad held up a HMT Jawahar — a sleek black dial with black straps and the word ‘Jawahar’ scrawled below the company logo. It was HMT’s way of honouring the then Prime Minister’s attempt to make the country more time conscious. Whether the leader passed or failed is up for contention, but one fact remains.

“For 71 years, this ‘0231’ movement has remained consistent in all HMT watches. It is pretty remarkable to look at when the watch is disassembled. Even a beginner can understand the several parts and it is easy to access,” Guru said.

Fifteen watch enthusiasts from all over Chennai, clad in white lab coats, wearing eye loupes, worked on the caliber of the watch to understand this very movement. S Vijay Anand, a lawyer practising at the Madras High Court, said, “It is easy to comment on the look and feel of a watch from outside but it feels like an entirely new experience from the inside,” he remarked. “Dinesh (Sachdeva), who is conducting the workshop, has experienced hands that move deftly. I can’t say the same for myself but this is quite an enjoyable experience,” he said, laughing.

The watch-making workshop was part of the sixth meetup of the Madras Watch Collectors Group. Over the course of these events, friendships have been forged, timepieces swapped, and several phone numbers of qualified watch technicians exchanged. The community now has 119 people as part of a WhatsApp group that discusses the release of latest watches and restoration of heirloom pieces. It has made it a practice to share a ‘Watch of the day’ alert where everyone shows off their accessory.

Sunday’s meeting at The Museum of Possibilities Cafe, saw 45 people bent over a long table learning about new watches and collections. The first meeting in April 2023 however, had only four people and was a consequence of a Facebook group that actively discusses watches.