trophy slideshow-left slideshow-right chevron-left chevron-right chevron-light chevron-light play play-outline external-arrow pointer hodinkee-shop hodinkee-shop share-arrow share show-more-arrow watch101-hotspot instagram nav dropdown-arrow full-article-view read-more-arrow close close close email facebook h image-centric-view newletter-icon pinterest search-light hodinkee-logo search magnifying-glass thumbnail-view twitter view-image checkmark triangle-down chevron-right-circle chevron-right-circle-white lock shop live events conversation watch plus plus-circle camera comments download x heart comment default-watch-avatar overflow check-circle right-white right-black comment-bubble instagram speech-bubble shopping-bag shop watch Stories Sort Arrows New Search Clear Search

Recommended Reading A Husband And Wife On A Mission To Revive Indian Watchmaking

The fledgling Bangalore Watch Company hopes to bring a new horological perspective to a growing market.

ADVERTISEMENT

You might not immediately think "India" when talking about major watchmaking hubs, but for a few decades in the latter part of the 20th century, there was in fact a domestic watch industry there. The state-owned Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) was founded in the 1960s in partnership with Japanese watch giant Citizen and thrived until the late 1980s when demand started to wane. During it heyday though, it produced over 100 million watches, making it one of the world's most prolific watchmakers.

Eventually though, demand did fall off, and the company was forced to close in 2016. Two Indian watch enthusiasts are now trying to bring watchmaking back to their country however, launching their own microbrand, the Bangalore Watch Company, essentially picking up where HMT left off. Their story is one of passion, economics, and quite a bit of hard work. It's equal parts interesting and inspiring.

Check out the full story from Quartz right here.