HMT Watches and Department of Posts have entered into an agreement for retailing watches through post offices across the country as part of HMT’s strategy to provide more diversified services to the public.

The Mysore Head Post Office (HPO) will sell watches manufactured by the Bangalore-headquartered Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Limited. The inaugural sale will be held on December 29 at the HPO where a function has been arranged in which HMT Watches Ltd’s Managing Director S Paul Raj. Select watch models of different price tags will be marketed through post offices. The service has already been launched in some cities with the post offices are marketing HMT’s watches.

HMT Watches Ltd is a subsidiary of the parent company HMT Limited. It was the first company to start watch manufacturing in India. Manufacture of wrist watches was initiated as part of HMT’s diversification strategy in 1962. In technical collaboration with the Citizen Watch Company of Japan, a manufacturing unit was set in Bangalore with its marketing headquarters too in the city.

Though HMT watches were popular in the initial days with exclusive showrooms in some prominent cities to directly market them, it has come to face stiff competition with other brands who, with their slicker and aggressive marketing have outdone HMT and have left it far behind.