ow retired, B.N. Yalamalli dedicates his time to writing and has published several books including “How did I Create Swiss Quality in Chinese Factories, Make in India, Cross Culture Management” and “The Next Global Manufacturing Giant”. Having trained as an engineer, he began his career in 1969 at HMT Watch Factory in Bangalore. As he told us, “Established in 1961, through a technical collaboration with Japan’s Citizen Watch Company, HMT holds a historic position as India’s first indigenous watch manufacturer, starting to produce mechanical hand-wound watches.”

B.N. Yalamalli worked mainly on external components (what the Swiss call the watch’s habillage – dials, hands, cases and crowns) and product development. He stayed with HMT until 1985, contributing to the launch of the very first Indian-made automatic watch, day/date watch, Braille watch, etc. “From 1962 until 1985, HMT dominated the Indian market. Its watches were known for being durable and accurate. Certain models became icons.

At the peak of its success, HMT was making up to six million watches at its various production units and had earned the title of ‘Timekeepers to the Nation’. As a fully integrated manufacturer, HMT mastered component production and assembly. Every Indian knew HMT, the name was even used as a synonym for ‘watch’. In 1980 we began a project for analogue quartz watches.”

B.N. Yalamalli

Titan reshuffles the cards

Then in 1981 a new player appeared. Based in Hyderabad, Allwyn collaborated with Seiko to make mechanical and quartz watches. More modern, much jazzier than HMT’s classic designs, soon Allwyn watches were all the rage but success would be shortlived. Another far bigger, more powerful player made its entrance in 1985: Titan. As Xerxes Desai, founder of Titan, declared to Business World magazine in 1989: “One reason we choose Hosur [to build our factory] was its proximity to Bangalore, the centre of HMT’s watch operation (…) We wanted to draw people out of HMT, particularly people with technical and managerial experience. To put it straight, we aimed to raid HMT and we did it.” One of Titan’s “catches” was B.N. Yalamalli.

“In 1985 I followed I.K. Amitha, the executive director of HMT and an authority on watch manufacturing, and went over to Titan, where I worked alongside Xerxes Desai – an ambitious, slightly arrogant man who wanted to beat the Swiss at their own game – as Product Development Manager. I was in charge of design and manufacturing for all the external parts and developed a network of local and international suppliers, in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, even Switzerland. Titan’s arrival on the Indian market revolutionised the industry, introducing quartz technology on a vast scale, demonstrating excellent marketing skills and developing a nationwide distribution network.” Titan’s meteoric rise would mark the gradual end of HMT’s dominant position.

As B.N. Yalamalli explains, HMT held a historic position as India’s first indigenous watch manufacturer. The rise of Titan would mark the gradual end of this dominant position.

An obsession with quality

Over the course of the 1990s, B.N. Yalamalli’s role would be that of a consultant engineer specialising in manufacturing, management and (his obsession) quality control systems, again for external parts. He worked with Taiwan’s biggest case manufacturer, Mei Hua Watch Case Industry, then for Growel Times in Pune, India, implementing CNC production for cases (one of his partners for this was Switzerland’s Bumotec), then again with Mei Hua, this time working on dials that shipped to well-known Swiss brands. His stated ambition: to achieve a level of quality that would stand comparison with Swiss production. His many years of experience led to a collaboration with Yashoo Sabo’s Taratec (read our article in this issue) to set up a dial factory in Parwanoo, serving only Swiss brands, for which he designed a Quality Management System (QMS). Ethos, India’s largest retailer of luxury Swiss watches, then asked him to plan and implement its first after-sales service centre for high-end Swiss timepieces.

Having dedicated his entire career to quality, on retirement B.N. Yalamalli began formulating his ideas in various books, pamphlets and articles. In a recent essay he asks What makes Swiss watches so unique and unbeatable? And gives his answer: “I have participated in Swiss Watchmaking as Quality Management Consultant to dial suppliers from Taiwan and India to a leading Swiss group of watch brands. The dial factories from China were supplying dials to Japan and Hong Kong watchmakers, and Indian dial suppliers to Indian watchmakers respectively. Supply to Swiss brands was developed and I was in charge of Quality Management. I developed a QMS (Quality Management Service) from scratch through trial and error. It was a tough task. We used to fail to meet AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit) levels mainly on visual defects. We used to check 100% using magnifying glasses at the final QC ( Quality Control) station then the QC persons at the Swiss firm would check with the naked eye, detect scratches and pinholes on four or five samples, and reject the whole lot. We learnt the hard way and quarter after quarter both factories in turn got the Overall Outstanding Supplier from Asian Continent award. The group of Swiss brands used to assess performance on criteria of capability, price, delivery, quality and response to after-sales service.”

One of several books written by B.N. Yalamalli

In How did I create Swiss Quality in China? (available from Amazon), B.N. Yalamalli talks about his experience in detail and covers the full range of QMS, making it a reference work on quality management in the watch industry.

One final dream?

His final dream, one he believes can become reality, is to see HMT, his first employer, rise from its ashes, and at 80 he says he is ready to put together a technical team to make it happen. The current government’s drive to promote “Make in India” is grist to his mill. However, in the wake of the free trade agreement between India and the EFTA that will see a gradual decrease in tariffs on Swiss watches (from the current 20%, they will be phased out over a period of seven years starting in October 2025), this dream, shared by many who look back on the heyday of Indian watchmaking with nostalgia, could prove difficult to achieve. Only time will tell.