Watches and Pens

Watches & Pens - the two things that can lure me to spend any amount of money and time. When I try to recall when I started getting a passion towards them, I cant identify any particular date or year. It happened. In those days I was referred as Pena-paithiyam & Watch-paithiyam (mad of pen and watches). Now it changed to Pen-Collector and Watch-Collector, looks some what decent. Thank you English.

[Pic: Watch Case]

Recently I moved some of my most recently used watches to a watch-case. When my friend first suggested to get a watch case for my watches, I rejected the idea upon knowing its price. Since for that price, I can get another watch. But after thinking for a couple of days, I got one, since I felt that it will simplify the process of storing and switching them, which these days, I am doing it twice a week. Can you see the white papers around their faces??? Those are tissue papers. Just to extra protect their faces. I can't bear my any of watch receiving a scratch :-). There is one more technique that I use to protect them, which I wont disclose. Its a trade secret. But a watch mechanic found that out when I gave one of my mechanical watches for service and gave a smile.

One pouch of that watch case is empty now . Will be filled with a vintage watch this weekend. Right now the watch is undergoing a complete service and rejuvenation in an expert watch mechanic shop.

[Pic: Pretty Jhalak adoring my wrist]

- spgr.

The story of my watches (6)

HMT Automatic:

Once I was browsing and reading about fountain pens. I am one of those rare persons who still uses fountain pen for most of my writing tasks. But nowdays my serious writing got reduced to writing one page in the diary, of course with an ink pen. During that time, I came across a couple of posts by a person called Hari. whose hobby was collecting pens. He also had mentioned about his another hobby, which is about collecting watches. From some of this posts, I got to know that HMT watches are still in production and they are still sold in their own retail outlets. I browsed more on that and somehow managed to locate a HMT retail outlet near my place. I visited that showroom and bought an Mechanical Automatic watch.

I have written more about it here - My New Automatic Watch.

HMT Mechanical Automatic - Model NASS 11

Sonata:

The Sonata quartz was presented by Amma in 2011, and it is the only Sonata I have till date. The face somewhat resembles the TIMES watch that I had earlier. Till now it required one battery replacement. Its more of a formal watch and I wear it only for special occasions.

Sonata

Chennai silks watch:

This is a digital watch that I brought from Chennai silks in Trichy. It received the attention of some watch enthusiats in my office. This was the watch I was wearing when I met with a minor bike accident. After that incident I almost stopped using it.

[pic: Chennai silks watch]

Chennai silks watch - Not in service now.

- SPGR.

The story of my watches (5)

HMT Amitabh:

For one of my birthday, my first younger sister wanted to get me a wrist watch. I took her to the HMT retail showroom. After a long selection process, I finally zeroed in on the HMT Amitabh. The dial was good and shiny. At that time HMT was selling all of its watches at 50% off, and we got this watch for just Rs. 575. When I wore it to office it gained the attention of many who enquired about it. Many were surprised that winding watches were still available.

HMT Amitabh

Haneefa Watch:

This digital watch was got by my friend from a nearby super-market named "Haneefa". It was of very good quality and lasted for more than 2 years of continues use. The original watch is not there now. but the digital movement was no nice that I moved it another case and it is functional now.

[pic: Haneefa movement in a new case]

Haneefa movement in a new case.

- SPGR.

The story of my watches (4)

HMT Kohinoor:

This is my grandfather's watch. It laid idle for many years after it came into my possession. While at college I asked my father to give it for servicing. He gave it an old watch mechanic who brought it back to an excellent state. This watch mechanic was a retired school headmaster who had taken up watch sales and repair after his retirement. Around this time I was in college and in hostel. I used to come home once in a month. Once when I came I found that the watch was serviced and ready for use. I keyed it in. But unfortunately I kept keying in, until I heard a knocking sound and the watch stopped working. The main spring gave up. My father took it again to the headmaster, who repaired it again. In the next time when I keyed in, I keyed very carefully and stopped with 12 winding. But this time, unfortunately I dropped the watch, with the crown directly falling on the floor and receiving the impact. The crown was still functional, but it got into a slanting position. Appa again took it to the headmaster, who probably would have replaced the crown. After these two incidents I never touched the watch for a long time.

Nearly after a decade, I took this watch to the HMT service center. The watch mechanic there serviced it and brought it back to near showroom condition. This time, the face-plate is changed to a grey colored one, and also the back plate is changed, since the original back plate had a minor crack in it. But, through these upgradations, it lost its vintage look. Now the movement and needles were the only ones from my grandfather's days. Now I think that I should have changed the needles too :-).

[pic: HMT Kohinoor, My Grandfather's Watch]

HMT Kohinoor

- SPGR.

The story of my watches (3)

Nelson Quartz:

When I was in 11th standard, Appa got me this watch. Appa took me to Mainguardgate with an idea to get a watch for me. We went through many watch shops, but I didn't like any of them. When we went to a shop in Super Bazaar, I liked one watch, which had a day-date feature and a dual tone dual tone dial - white and gold. It had the name "Nelson" written on it. It was a bit costly in those days, costing about Rs. 450. But still Appa went ahead and bought it for me. I wore this watch from 12th standard until I completed my UG. It was used almost daily. I still remember the day it received its first scratch on the crystal, the evening before my 12th chemistry public exam, when I was wearing it and studying for the exams. After that it received many scratches, but served loyally. Later on I gave it to my father, who changed its case, strap and used it for some more time. Eventually it was destroyed.

TIMES:

This was a quartz watch bought by my sister from Vizag. It had a black case, black resin strap and a gold face. The needles of this watch was especially cute. Once when I banged the door of "Rockfort Express" in an attempt to open it, it received an impact on its crystal and the crystal cracked. I moved the machine of this watch to my another watch and this watch was eventually destroyed.

Casio DB-36:

My younger sister got this watch from US. This was a wrist watch that had many features and it is one of my favorites, since my watch wearing habit started with digital watches. It also had the ability to store 30 phone numbers which came handy whenever I forgot to take my mobile phone to office. "10 year battery" is written on its face-plate, meaning that its battery will last for 10 years. Bought in 2010, it still keeps perfect time, and didn't required a battery replacement.

[pic: my casio DB-36]

Casio DB-36