Introduction

HMT Limited, formerly Hindustan Machine Tools Limited, is a state-owned holding company
under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in India. The company's wholly
owned subsidiaries include HMT Machine Tools Limited and HMT International Limited. HMT
also holds a majority stake in Praga Tools Limited (51%).

In its heyday, HMT Watches was the largest supplier of wrist watches in India. It was closed in
2016, largely due to mismanagement of the company, leading to heavy losses. In the same
year, the Government of India also shut down HMT Chinar Watches Ltd., HMT Bearings, and
HMT Tractors.

HMT Machine Tools Limited still manufactures industrial machines and tools with a work force of
around 2,500 in six manufacturing units situated at Bangalore (Mother unit), Kochi, Hyderabad
(2 units), Pinjore and Ajmer. These mostly serve India's defence, government and educational
Institutions.

Hindustan Machine Tools was incorporated in 1953 by the Government of India as a machine
tool manufacturing company. Over the years, HMT diversified into watches, tractors, printing
machinery, metal forming presses, die casting and plastic processing machinery, and CNC
systems and bearings. HMT is headquartered at Bengaluru (Bangalore).

Technology was absorbed in all product groups through collaborations with world-renowned
manufacturers and further strengthened by continuous in-house R&D.

Today, HMT consists of six subsidiaries under the ambit of a holding company, which also
manages the tractor business directly.

HMT Limited took over Praga Tools Limited as one of its subsidiaries 1988.[10] Praga Tools
Limited was established in May 1943 as Praga Tools Corporation Limited to manufacture
machine tools with its headquarters at Secunderabad. It was renamed Praga Tools Limited in
1963. It is mainly involved in the manufacture of machine tools, including CNC machines.
Watch division
In 1961, HMT set up a watch manufacturing Unit at Bangalore in collaboration with M/s Citizen
Watch Co., Japan. The first batch of Hand Wound Wrist Watches manufactured here was released
by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. The most popular mechanical hand-wound
watch is HMT Janata. There are also other mechanical watches like HMT Pilot, HMT Jhalak (Semi
Skeletal), HMT Sona, HMT Braille.

In 1972, HMT expanded its watch manufacturing capacity with a set up alongside the Bangalore
Factory to manufacture additional watches. In 1975, Watch factory at Bangalore was further
expanded to manufacture Main Spring, Hair spring and Shock absorber components.
HMT set up additional manufacturing facilities to produce watch components sets at Tumkur and
Ranibagh in the year 1978 and 1985 respectively. Watch factory at Tumkur was partially converted
to manufacture Quartz Analog Watches in collaboration with M/S Citizen Watch Co, Japan. To cater
to the Niche market, a specialised watch case manufacturing facility was set up at Bangalore in
1983.

Since 1985, HMT Watches had been involved in making Floral Clocks, Solar Clocks, International
Clocks and Tower Clocks, most popular among them being the Garden clock in Bangalore. In the
year 2000, HMT Watch Business group was re-structured as HMT Watches Limited, a wholly owned
subsidiary of HMT Limited. In September 2014, the Government of India decided to shut down HMT
operations in a phased manner.