Pioneers Tryst with Electronic Watches

By Prof. Mitter Vedu

Synopsis Electronic watches made their debut in India in 1970 with the analog quartz electronic watch of the Longines Brand manufactured by Hegde & Golay Limited, an Indo-Swiss Joint Enterprise. The digital electronic quartz watches came in by 1977 with a Motorola module manufactured again by Hegde & Golay Limited. However, with politics intersecting with economic feasibility and technical competence, these pioneering efforts were nullified by a short-sighted watch policy by Morarji Desais government with George Fernandes as its Industries Minister which was mainly formulated to protect HMT investment for higher priced mechanical automatic watches in Tumkur and the ailing Semiconductor Complex in Chandigarh. I had the rare opportunity of being associated with Bernard Golay SA in Switzerland, the research contractor to Longines under whose banner the worlds first analog quartz watch was produced which proved itself on the surface of the moon on Neil Armstrongs wrist and the forays of H&G into this area as well, besides being associated with H&G watch complex during the short honeymoon with Tatas before they ventured on their own into establishing Titan in Hosur.

The story

It was 1966 September. I had just conducted in my capacity as Member-Secretary of the All-India Students Anti-Hindi Agitation Council (in co-operation with Provash Ghosh of Calcutta and P. Srinivasan of Madras) the All-India Students Language Conference in Calcutta successfully with over 400 delegates from all over India, advocating the indefinite continuance of English as the Official Language of the Union by way of culmination of student mobilization ever since 1963. I had also finished and passed with flying colors my M. E., in Advanced Electronics at the Indian Institute of Science and was awaiting a possible enrolment for Ph.D.,. I had just vacated my room, the famous G9, Mens Hostel at I.I.Sc., where the decision to put up P.Srinivasan as the contestant to K. Kamaraj at Virudunagar was taken. I attended many interviews and was expecting offers from Coimbatore Institute for Technology (Lecturer), NAL (Scientific Assistant), Technical Teacher Training Program (GOI) etc., Month of October. I got my appointment as Lecturer in Coimbatore Institute of Technology; NAL and TT program too. Was not inclined to join hoping to get my Ph.D., call from Dr BS Sonde; which never probably would come. I always wanted to be in academics or in the private sector as an innovator in preference to being in the public sector or the government as I had always seen my hard-working and upright father struggling for recognition in Electricity Board. An advertisement in the Indian Express captioned Top-notch Project Engineer for an Electronics Project caught my eye; I had inkling this may be a risky but tremendous opportunity to be associated from day one in an exciting project where hard and intelligent work would be rewarded handsomely. I attended the interview at IIT, Madras; Prof.Sampath who was Deputy Director and Mr BT Shankar Hegde, a small scale entrepreneur, spoke glowingly about the electronics project in collaboration with Bernard Golay SA of Switzerland; about how I can be a pioneer without stating the area of activity or product in detail. Page 1 of 16

I had great regard for professor and that largely influenced the decision. Returned to Madurai, consulted my father and then gave a conditional acceptance as the job involved a contract to be bound to the promoter for five years and with a non-compete clause for another five years; the agreement was to be drafted jointly with the company lawyer subsequently. November 1, 1966. Moved over to Madras. Met Mr Hegde at his dingy unimpressive factory at Sydenham Road and went over to meet his family at Kilpauk Garden Colony. He was a gentleman host with a lot of promising words. Next day had a meeting with Shri Sampathkumar, Advocate, in his George Town office; looked at the draft and suggested some changes in view of my fathers retired status assuring remittance of half my salary to him during my stay in Switzerland and the total duration of the agreement. They were accepted only after some convincing. The agreement was signed and was to take effect from the date of joining which was left open! Perhaps Hegde wanted to save on salary till my passport was ready! I was asked to join finally which I did on January 25, 1967 at Shailendra Enterprises at Sydenhams Road at the dingy, dirty sheet metal workshop! Had a look at correspondence with Bernard Golay SA, Switzerland, and understood that the company was manufacturing electronic ship chronometers and process timers for industrial control consoles. Did not see much market for these products then in India! However, did some spadework trying to get quotes for centralized AC systems and factory furniture and the like. Another major challenge was latent in the job; it was the language of French which was the only language understood in the part of Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, where Lausanne was situated; the seat of the International Red Cross then. Rummaged Moore Market, located Hugos French in Three Months and started study. My technical German in which I stood first in class at I.I.Sc after a two years course taught by Dr Hans Meinel did not help me as German was more like Sanskrit and was different from other languages of Latin and Anglo-Saxon descent. My English was strong as I stood first in University of Madras in my B.Sc. public examination. That helped to an extent in understanding French grammar, but was of no use in pronunciation. Was nothing like hearing and speaking French. All was set for my journey to Lausanne. Feb 25, 1967. Boarded a Boeing 707 of Air India with just 21GBP (250 Rs) (nothing more was allowed as money then due to stringent Foreign Exchange controls). After a flight and airport change and customs and immigration clearance and long wait of four hours at Bombay took an Air India flight to Zurich. A three hour wait at Zurich boarded the last flight to Geneva and arrived at Geneva. Bernard Golay was personally there to receive and drove me to Hotel Jan at Lausanne. Checked in at 3 pm local time, had a wash and was ready at 5 pm as instructed by Mr Golay. He took me to a restaurant for food. Being vegetarian, the menu contained nothing known. I was asked to try an Italian Pizza. The strange smell (or was it a stink?) prevented me from eating much. A good glass of orange juice and yoghurt ended the day with some nutrition. The stink, sorry, the aroma was of one of the advanced forms of the 220 varieties of French/Swiss cheese! Next morning. At 9.00 AM Lucian Geiger, watch technician, picked me up and drove me to Croix Rouges 2 where Bernard Golay SA office was located. After a brief meeting with Bernard Golay and Jacques Piguet, the Accountant and Office Manager, was taken to the electronics research lab in Avenue de Tivoli and introduced to Jean Claude Berney, the Director of the research labs. After a few hours of looking at what was being done there I was taken to Hotel Jan; checked out and was taken with baggage to 15, Mont Goulin at Prilly and introduced to Mademoiselle Elisa Sandoz , my host, at Mont Goulin 15 where I was to stay as a paying guest. She was extremely affable and old enough to be a grandma, being a retired nurse, but did not know even a word of English! Voil! Thus began my momentous 20 months stay in Switzerland. Page 2 of 16

As I was attending Bernard Golay Research Labs where I learnt about Chronometers and Crystal Oscillator controlled process control instrumentation, the project to produce the very first electronic quartz watch in the world began for Longines under a development contract with the inventor Berney as head of the combined research team. At that time there were only Small-Scale-Integrated circuits (SSIs) being made in the world. Medium-Scale-Integrated circuits (MSI) were just under development at RCA, USA. Miniaturization was a major challenge to bring accurate time keeping on the wrist. Bulky inductors were involved in quartz oscillators and quartz was the only way to get enhanced accuracy as against mechanical automatic watches. Berney had already invented completely resistor based quartz oscillators and patented it. This could eliminate the need for inductors for the tank circuit. An MSI to Berneys design was outsourced from RCA under a secrecy agreement. The challenge of micro-packaging components remained. Printed circuit board or hybrid thick film circuits, was the question. Bernard Golay SA did not have either facility. As luck would have it, Cicorel SA, at La-Chaux-de-Fonds, a small scale manufacturer of single-sided glass-epoxy printed circuits, was up for sale being in debts. Bernard Golay and Pierre Schaller saw an opportunity and seized it. Cicorel was bought and shifted to Renens near Lausanne. This enabled in a great way the project for the electronic watch as we shall see later. The watch required fast an interconnection system in-house and hybrid development would take longer than can be tolerated by the required deadline. The design necessitated double-sided printed circuit board with at least 250 micron traces and spaces with 0.5 mm holes on a 0.5 mm glass-epoxy substrate. The traces (conductors) needed gold plating as we intended to make the watch fit for outer space; tin plating which was in vogue then was known to develop whiskers especially in outer space and was unfit for wire bonding. Cicorel, then, could make single sided PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) only of thickness 0.8 mm-2.4mm thick glass epoxy with no plated through holes. Several enquiries for Plated-through-holes (PTH) boards such as for famous radar Company Contraves AG were not possible to execute. Pierre Schaller, Director of Cicorel found it impossible to allocate personnel for Research & Development as the employees were preoccupied with single-sided orders and besides none was educated enough to be assigned to research. I had by then identified Professional Grade Printed Circuits and possibly electronic watches/ time distribution systems later as a possible project for India and had written to Shankar Hegde strongly recommending for a favorable decision. This was sometime in June 1967. My Swiss Visa was to expire in August. Pierre Schaller made a request to Bernard Golay to lend my services for three months to conduct research on new processes for PCBs and the request was acceded to. My Visa got extended for six months and I was temporarily transferred to Cicorel at Renens. I worked in all sections, one by one, to be conversant with existing processes. In every section I brought about improvements in quality and productivity by new methods; I moved to supervisory responsibilities and ultimately to production responsibility in a matter of four months! Evenings were spent chalking out a program of research into how to make reliable PTH PCBs; then Riston of Du Pont was nonexistent and application of photoresist using spray or whirler techniques yielded innumerable problems inside holes due to inadequate removal of Kodak PhotoResist 2 leading to voids and nodules. Working 1416 hours every day various possible ways were explored and found to be ineffective; it struck me that the only way the holes can be free of photoresist is not to allow the photoresist to get there in the first place; this would be practical only if drilling takes place after formation of traces and etching both sides. The process sequence was therefore changed completely so as to drill after etching but before electroless copper; however the challenge of preventing electroless copper from sticking on to etched epoxy areas remained. I wanted a paint applicable by spraying, drying fast and with a shining finish. Pierre Schaller found Lumiflex an acrylic-based clear paint which was used as a lacquer Page 3 of 16

to protect wood. This enabled the new process postulated by me to work (which was documented in the presence of a Notary Public and patenting was contemplated). Cicorel started accepting orders for PTH and we progressively delivered prototype PCB to Berney, production quantities to Contraves AG at Zurich, Matiz SA at Lausanne. Pierre Schaller saw the potential in me as he extended his time also in the factory and expressed to Bernard Golay that I should extend my visa for another six month and beyond if necessary. Bernard Golay could get Shankar Hegdes consent based on my reports that professional grade printed circuits especially plated through hole as well as electronic watches could be our first project in India. I had also indicated that one more electronic engineer be taken for the watch/time distribution activities and also a chemical engineer for the PCB production as lot of plating was involved. T. Venkateswara Babu who was one year junior to me in M.E., at I.I.Sc was taken and he joined me in Switzerland. He joined Berney to fill my gap with Berney. August 1967. Cicorel obtained an order for flexible circuits on Mylar/Kapton from Paillard SA at Neuchatel for their film projectors as a development order. Pierre Schaller assigned me the challenge. The circuits were satisfactorily manufactured and delivered to Paillard SA in about four weeks. This was my first foray into flexibles which would come in handy later in India. October 1967. Bernard Golay SA and Cicorel SA decided to exhibit in Inter-Nepcon 1967 at London in November. Cicorel received an order from Elliotts Automation in England for 100 PTH boards to be delivered within a month as they were unable to get reliable supply from anywhere in Europe. The production had to be achieved in 15 days as against the normal delivery of 4-6 weeks. Babu was also drafted for assistance for a month and both of us worked 16 hours a day and overnight the last day and successfully realized what was needed. We were ready to deliver and it was decided that we carry the boards personally to London. Elliotts Automation technical staff were thrilled to receive such good boards which passed all their inspection and testing. Babu and I manned the Golay stalls at Inter-Nepcon 1967. I had the good fortune of attending a 2 day course on Thick Film Hybrids there which gave me a great insight into hybrid circuits as well as wire-bonding. The visit to Inter-Nepcon gave a strong exposure to machines and processes for micro-packaging electronics. By the time we returned we had a letter of appreciation from Elliotts Automation at Cicorel and a repeat order. We were on cloud nine with a worthwhile invention which could put Cicorel on the path to success. Cicorel became a pioneer in PTH PCBs in all of Europe before many others. Research continued into increasing layers and reducing line widths and spaces. The electronics watch project gathered pace with the first prototype passing all tests. It was decided to manufacture 10000 as a first lot and plan was drawn up Golay-Longines combine headed by Berney. My French was improving by leaps and bounds, thanks to my loquacious host Tantelle, and many friends at Cicorel. This accelerated my work at Cicorel and I started planning for the project in India. Shankar Hegde had booked a readymade shed reserved for small scale industries in an industrial area in Vyasarpadi industrial estate in Madras (now Chennai). I had a feeling that Madras was not the right place for the project as most electronics activity was in Bangalore with Bharat Electronics, Indian Telephones and Hindustan Aeronautics situated in Bangalore. I wrote about it, but Hegde spurned my suggestion. Meanwhile, under sponsorship of Bernard Golay SA, I also attended a useful certificate course on metallurgy at Swiss Metallurgical Institute in Neuchatel. This gave me clear ideas about metallurgical aspects in watch-making. November 1968. Finally, I left Switzerland fully prepared to head and execute the project in India. Friends at both Bernard Golay SA and Cicorel SA bade me a tearful farewell with their best wishes for the future. Babu stayed on with developing basic designs for Modular Time Distribution Systems.

Page 4 of 16

Back in India, having spent considerable time in Bangalore and Lausanne, I felt Madras was sultry, dirty and disorganized! From my residence at crowded Vepery, going by bus every day to Ambattur Industrial Estate where Bit-Tul Private Limited (makers of mechanical cutting tools) was situated for designing and fabricating worktables and revolving chairs was nothing less than an ordeal. The brighter side of it was my acquaintance and friendship with Manohar, a fresh mechanical engineering diploma holder, son of ICF works Manager. He was able to grasp my requirements and help in physically realizing my visualization of how the mechanical hardware should be for ergonomically comfortable working. We also simultaneously visited Vysarpadi and started making ground marking and layout design for the equipment planned for the project. All the same my underlying disappointment at having to plan for a less-than-optimum size factory with no scope for expansion at Madras where no electronics activity was existing then continued to gnaw at me. Made a fresh attempt to speak to Hegde and write to Golay about my views. May 1969. Hegde made a visit to Bangalore and met Mr Veerendra Patil, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. The CM appreciated his plans to make watches and printed circuits and offered speedy help. On his return, Hegde asked us to stop all work at Vyasarpadi and Ambattur and broke the news that we were to move to Bangalore for good on a more ambitious project. Made a visit to Bangalore met Mr KLV Subbaiah, Planning Manager of MICO; Hegde purchased from him a 4 acre land near Doddakalasandra in the South of Bangalore. Plans were made to shift Bit-Tul Private Limited also into that land along with the electronics project. This effectively delayed the project schedule by 6-8 months. July 1969. I shifted my residence to Jayanagar 4th Block. The acquired land was green-field with no industries around; was about 5 kms from my house. We rented a villa at Ashoka Pillar Road in Jayanagar 1st Block for the project office. Besides planning for the project in detail again, I had on hand selling cutting tools and responding to customer complaints for work! Commuting between project office and site was by walk during the first month and by bicycle thereafter. After all Government clearances were obtained and finalizing the construction plan with M/s LM Chitale & Son at Madras, I shifted my attention full time to the site. The initial business was dependent on Cicorel giving us export orders, Hegdes attention shifted to getting approvals for the first-ever bonded warehouse and bonded manufacture in the country. The corporate entity Hegde & Golay Private Limited was born by changing the name of Superweld Electrodes Pvt Ltd, one of the many companies registered then. Mr HB Narasimha Rao joined me as a mechanical engineer and Manohar was shifted from Madras to Bangalore. Borewells were made and water was ensured. Building construction started with the basement earmarked for stores which was temporarily made into an office; Narasimha Rao acted as my typist and draughtsman while Manohar went about fabricating work desks, chairs etc., Hegde was interested in fabricating on one off basis every machine, but my view was to import the essential ones to ensure quality and after much conflict I had my way. He also recommended an open shed-like manufacturing, whereas I was clear that partitions were necessary to keep the atmosphere controlled for quality output; I had to force my way and was reprimanded for my initiative! November 1969. We received news that Neil Armstrong wore the first electronic watch in the world gifted to him by Bernard Golay worked well on the surface of the moon and returned. The gold plated miniature PCB made by me had proved its worth! This enthused Hegde to speed up manufacture and sale of electronic watches. We made the first announcement to the press about the factory for electronic watches. (The report in Deccan Herald attached). Page 5 of 16

Babu joined after 18 months in Switzerland by November and the building was almost ready. Equipments and materials started arriving. Hegde had by then succeeded in getting the necessary permissions for bonded manufacturing for the first time in South India. Trials were done in December and the factory inauguration took place on January 01, 1970 and the first invoice was made for the first ever export of printed circuits from India to Switzerland. May 1, 1970. A day of tragedy. Manohar who went to Bit-Tul building to help them unload machines from a truck was caught under the machine and died on the spot. Mr EAS Prasanna (the cricket great) who had joined us a month back as Marketing Manager and I went to Victoria Hospital with Manohars body where post-mortem was done. Manohars father in Madras was informed and he came rushing. It was a heart-wrenching experience to see the father sobbing whose only son was lost. The funeral was arranged at St. Patricks church and the burial was completed. It was decided that every May 1st will be observed as Manohar Memorial Day. The export of printed circuits fetched some special import licences using which electronic watches in SKD condition could be imported and test marketing in India commenced. The analogue quartz watch was priced at Rs 2000/- although the Swiss price was SFr 2000/- (Rs 4000/-). This brought for the first time electronic watches to India. The testing and packaging and after sales service was done by H&G. 1974. Instead of going into full-fledged electronics, Hegde became enamoured of mechanical watches. KIADB acquired and gave 65 acres of land and with the help of KSIIDC and KFC (financial institutions) Plans were drawn up for a sprawling industrial estate and a watch assembly facility to challenge HMT, the public sector watch giant established with Citizen collaboration. With the launch of Cauvery, the automatic mechanical watches H&G entered manufacture of mechanical watches also. Swiss who were traditionally opposed to giving watch technology outside caused problems to Golay SA from Swiss cartels which were opposed to giving technology outside. Sale of analogue quartz watches continued gradually; however, digital quartz watches with LCD display became available through surreptitious channels in Chickpet! 1977. Electronic watches with digital LCD display was started with help from Motorola. A complete assembly facility was set up using chip-on-board technology on soft gold plated printed circuits; and these watches were priced at around Rs 250/- whereas HMT automatic mechanical watches made in Tumkur were being sold at Rs 450/-. HMT saw this as a major threat to its 30 crore investment in Tumkur. H&Gs main competition was smuggling from Hong Kong. Smuggled digital watches with basic functions were available in Chickpet on the pavement for Rs 100/-. To meet this threat we designed and tested extensively a basic digital LCD watch which could be sold for Rs 86/-. H&G applied for expansion licences both for mechanical and digital watches. Morarji Desai was Prime Minister and George Fernandes was Minister for Industry then. They both saw this as threat to HMT and hence refused expansion licence; to add fuel to the fire they also brought out a restrictive electronic watch policy which stipulated that no electronic watch should be sold for less than Rs 450/- and any difference between Rs 450/- and ex-factory price should be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India. Besides, all electronic watch assemblers should use only modules manufactured by Semiconductor Complex Ltd at Chandigarh. This sounded the death knell for H&G watch units as well as Shreeshyla Co-operative Industrial Estate housing about 20 Small Scale companies. The downward spiral began and the whole initiative to manufacture mechanical watches proved a blunder. Page 6 of 16

The Horological Polytechnic came into existence with HB Narasimha Rao as its first Principal and me included in the Governing Council. I had the opportunity and privilege of drafting the syllabus in association with the Karnataka State Directorate of Education in the company of Narasimha Rao. 1978. State Bank of India loan payments and interest payments burdened the company. The case went to the courts. A lender never helps when you are in need, but he offers loan when you do not need it! Universal truth! At that time, the house of Tatas were on the look-out for a watch licence and coming under the purview of MRTP they could not get a licence on their own. Mr Anil Gore of Tata Press and Mr Xerxes Desai of Tata Sons visited H&G and proposed to Hegde that Tatas could become partners. Based on their assessment and recommendation Mr JRD Tata visited H&G and Shreeshyla Cooperative Industrial Estate and approved the idea. Xerxes Desai became a Director on the board and Anil Gore was to be Executive Director. Tatas made the initial token investment of Rs 5 Lacs in H&G shares. It was agreed that after six months of working together a firm arrangement would be made for Tatas permanent involvement. Sales campaign was launched with Tata-Hegde-Golay as the brand. Meanwhile, Xerxes Desai visited Switzerland and had more exhaustive discussions with Bernard Golay and ensured his support. However, Xerxes Desai gradually in association with Bernard Golay veered to the view that with Hegde at the helm, professional management was impossible and that was the only hope to save H&G. Hegde got wind of the developing scenario and refused to be a figure-head non-executive Chairman. By a deft sleight of hand (!) he dismissed Xerxes Desai from the board in an emergency board meeting and returned the money invested by Tatas against which the share certificate was not yet issued. This brought to an abrupt end the honeymoon with Tatas which was the only hope then. Anil Gore was expelled. It is common knowledge how Tatas later formed a joint venture with TamilNadu Industrial Development Corporation in the joint sector and obtained a watch licence for a factory at Hosur. That was Titan Industries Limited, a joint sector enterprise, which later became a private sector unit wholly owned by Tatas as the economy liberalized. Titan is great name today and has beaten HMT hollow. Xerxes Desai avenged his failure with H&G with the phenomenal success of Titan (!). 1979. The Janata Government fell and General Elections came. Hegde stood as an independent and lost against Sharma of Congress (Sharma transport) getting only 1500 votes losing his deposit. With that his hope of becoming a politician and saving H&G was dashed. By 1981, it became clear to me that Hegde protected his bread and butter with Shailendra Enterprises and Bit-Tul Private Limited being outside the purview of SBI, but left H&G in the lurch with Golay also liquidated in Switzerland. I moved in July 1981, teaming up with N.Kumar of Sanmar Group, Chennai, who was interested in manufacturing electronic components. Thus ended my association with watches, cases and dials! The metal finishing and paint technology learnt for watchcases and dials stood me in good stead for other applications. Micropack was incorporated in 1982 and came into operation in January 1984. As Micropack President & CEO, I had the privilege of being the Chairman of Elcina Panel for PCB Industry, CoFounder of Indian Printed Circuit Association, and President of IPCA 1989-1991. In 1994 I moved as Executive Director of the Electronics Group of Sanmar which included Micropack in its fold with TQM as my major agenda for the group and retired in 2000. Joined PES School of Management (now PES University) as Professor of Management and retired as Professor in 2002; Continued as a consultant for Quality being an ASQ certified Software Quality Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt. Page 7 of 16

Micropack remains yet the only and first Indian manufacturer approved by Defence Electronics Supply Command (DESC, USA) for both rigid and flexi-rigid MLBs, besides being a technology leader in interconnect technology. (As of January 2014). Publications: 1. Deccan Herald Announcement-1969. 2. The Quartz Watch Era - (Chip-on-Board), Trade Post - July 1981

Page 8 of 16

Page 9 of 16

Page 10 of 16

Page 11 of 16

Page 12 of 16

Page 13 of 16

Page 14 of 16

Page 15 of 16

Page 16 of 16