# Indian Hmt Pilot - Quite A Bargain...



## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

I received my HMT Pilot bought on the auction site yesterday and it turns out to be quite a nice piece.










It is a small (35mm) rather old fashioned style hardly altered in the fifty years or so the Hindustan Machine Tool Co (HMT) has been making them. They make a few styles actually and you can easily find a lot of fans on the web by searching for them by name. They make one called the Sona, another called the Janata and some more I can't remember.

The movement I think is an Indian made Myotta type ticking at 18000 bph. They build it under licence in a few state run, Indian factories.

It seems very nicely put together for the Â£19.99 I paid for it as a new watch. The case is pleasantly solid stainless, and it has a very tightly pressed on back with a rubber gasket and a rubber seal on the stem for what I'd call casual water resistance. It ain't a diver, but I bet I could drop this in a bucket of water for an hour without incident. I won't try it though, just in case.

The lume on the dial is hand painted, and looked at with a loupe, it looks as if it was done in a hurry, but in ordinary use, you'd not really notice that. At night, the lume material is less effective than that on my new Se-Gull, which glows for about four hours brightly enough to be read in the dark, but the HMT is in darkness after about a half an hour.

Accuracy is pretty good for the price point. Mine gained 17 seconds in the first twenty-four hours on the wrist. I popped the back off (it was very tight, but fortunately has a special lip for prizing it off) and have begun regulating it a little slower. I got my Â£10 Tongji watch to work at +5 seconds a day after patient trial and error regulation, so I have hopes of doing the same with this one. The interior is clean and very shiny looking. If I have to open it again to regulate some more, I'll take an interior shot and post it.

Here is a photo of the HMT Pilot in company with a 39mm Seagull and my dad's old Omega.


----------



## louiswu (May 16, 2009)

Nice Pilot ! You don't see as many of those around as you do of other models.

I've a couple of the more common HMT's meself, and i know of at least one other owner here (but he's got one of EVERYTHING !)

My Jawan and Kohinoor say hi.....


----------



## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

Nice - That Jawan looks pretty much like a Pilot with some extra Arabic numbers on the dial. Is it the same size as the Pilot?

I really go for the very traditional shape and size. For that reason I prefer the Jawan to the Kohinoor. Mind you - the name Kohinoor has a special place in my fondness for names as it is the name of the very first Indian restaurant that I started going to at the end of the 1960s when the craze for south Asian food first hit the area where I lived.

I think these watches are pretty well put together for the money.


----------



## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Very nice Pilot :thumbsup:

I really like HMT`s, I currently own this Jawan & a Janata










I used to have this Akash & a black dialed Kohinoor


----------



## Drum2000 (Apr 2, 2010)

Everyone should have one -


----------



## Draygo (Mar 18, 2010)

Drum2000 said:


> Everyone should have one -


...or two


















I'd be lying if I said I wore these very often, but on the odd occasion that I do, I really like 'em.

PS. Love the digits font (and drilled lugs?) on Mach's Jawan...


----------



## vortex89 (Jul 4, 2011)

I like the look of these watches but the case size is putting me off, I am going to do a little searching for something bigger


----------



## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Draygo said:


> Drum2000 said:
> 
> 
> > Everyone should have one -
> ...


I`d be very happy to have those in my collection B)



> PS. Love the digits font (and drilled lugs?) on Mach's Jawan...


They certainly aid strap changes...










Mind you as I tend to go for one peice straps it doesn`t make much difference to me


----------



## louiswu (May 16, 2009)

Love the unmolested dial on yours there Mac.

See sooo many of these that look like they've been made from bits and repainted by 4 year olds in poorly-lit workshops ....and probably have !

No applied dial markers on the Jawan (unlike the Pilot) which makes them a lot easier to repaint

They usually get a pheon added too for good measure - presumably to cash in on the rumour that these were used by the Indian military in the 60's & 70's.

Mine has drilled lugs too but since it lives on a perlon nato it also makes little difference.

Another pic ..why not ?


----------



## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

There's some excellent photography on view here. Really nice pictures. I'm going to have to improve mine a bit.

I've had my Pilot apart to a good extent. I had the back off to regulate it as I'ma bit obsessive about having a watch that gains exactly the same amount each day. I think to myself, if it gains exactly 17 seconds each 24 hours, if I regulate it properly, it might sit dead on the right time. So having the back off it, I noticed a nasty lump of something dangling out of the stem tube into the watch. I thought, that's going to dislodge and fall into the movement some day, so I started taking it apart.

Out came the stem - movement out of the case and the material looked like some sort of sealant that might have been put up the stem tube to keep out water. When I first looked at the stem tube the other day, I thought it had a rubber seal, but it was this material and not rubber at all.

After this, I thought I might as well oil the thing, so I whipped off the hands, dial (nicely secured with feet and screws unlike the really cheap Chinese watches I have) and then I could get at the jewels on both sides. I took out the balance bridge and wheel, and lifted off the train bridge to see the running train looked ok which it did. I didn't take out the wheels because the ratchet wheel which sits on top of one of the wheels is secured in place by a screw that is outrageously tight. I tried it a few times and it was not going to come out without too much force being applied. I have read an account of another watchy who broke the same screw on his HMT Sona barrel, so I decided to call off any further dismantling.

http://watchguy.co.uk/review-hmt-sona/#more-275

There is no need anyway since the watch is brand new. I oiled all the jewels including those of the balance and put it back together so it is ticking away now and looking OK while I monitor its rate and continue with the regulating process. I have found that really cheap watches like my Â£10.99 Tongji movement are sometimes capable of stellar performance if I am patient enough in regulating them.

I took a few photos which I could put up if anyone wants to see them.


----------



## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

Grot from the stem tube of my HMT Pilot:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_yfNY4gRMpRRnF0MjBHT2FyUWc

The dismantling started:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_yfNY4gRMpRY1kxOUxBeVhuVFU

Running train exposed but ratchet wheel won't come off:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_yfNY4gRMpRRW5hVzRFTGZhTzg

Back together again:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_yfNY4gRMpRZ0wzN2loX2JMbnc


----------



## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

cant believe i only paid a fiver for this, absolute bargain


----------



## Mr.D (Dec 23, 2012)

I remember as a kid in the 70s the only alarm clock we had was some HMT clockwork square.

It had the loudest tick I've ever heard ; when I was a kid I used to have to ask for it to be removed from my room ( I still hate loud ticking clocks when I'm trying to sleep).

My second watch ( first was some texas instruments digital at 7 years old...my mum used to make me and my brother wear our watches all the time...so she didn't have to !) was a swatch with a similarly loud tick so it lived under my pilllow most of its life.

Back to the HMT. It worked for years ; I reckon at least 20 and even then it just vanished at some point I don't think it ever stopped working. It also filled in as a synthetic hearbeat for my first dog when he was a pup to lull him to sleep in his early days.

All in all a faithful if slightly aggravating thing.

I'm now in India a lot and most people over here have never heard of HMT. I looked for one as a momento and never had any luck.


----------



## Stinch (Jul 9, 2008)

I think they're great. Paid Â£16.66 for mine brand new with warranty. Worn pretty much every day since it arrived from India a couple of weeks ago.


----------



## Stinch (Jul 9, 2008)

Mr.D said:


> I'm now in India a lot and most people over here have never heard of HMT. I looked for one as a momento and never had any luck.


 If you google hmt watches they have a web site and it lists their outlets across India.


----------



## Davey P (Sep 9, 2010)

I got this HMT Kohinoor free from Woody on here (Well, technically I won it in a competition!) and although I'm not usually a fan of the oldies, I really like it:










Mine is now fitted with a quartz movement and new hands after I managed to mess up the original running gear when I dismantled it to clean the face.... (I really shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the insides of a watch!). The good news is, it's now keeping perfect time :lol: I think it was within about 5 or 10 mins a day with it's original manual wind movement.


----------



## Jens1 (Oct 9, 2021)

I bought a hmt pilot watch as a birthday present for myself. It is a refurbished black dial pilot. I am waiting for the watch.

The hmt 020 https://17jewels.info/movements/h/hmt/hmt-020/ movement is regarded as very reliable, I like the watch with the inhouse movement.

In Australia we have not much information about the hmt company. It is an engineering company, build Bedford trucks, tractors and machines.

Could you be so kind to give me more information about the hmt pilot watch? Is this an aviation watch, military watch? What was the original purpose?

Thank you.

Jens


----------



## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

Jens1 said:


> Could you be so kind to give me more information about the hmt pilot watch? Is this an aviation watch, military watch? What was the original purpose?


 Some info here,

https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/hmt-military-watch-information-appreciated.278008/


----------

