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MR SHINJI HATTORI, President & CEO, Seiko Watch Corporation, (right) and Mr Atsushi Kaneko, Managing Director, Seiko Watch India, at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai June 7 Japanese Seiko Watch Corporation on Thursday made a foray into the Indian market with its latest range of premium and luxury watches. Targeting customers between 25 and 40 years, Seiko would launch over 110 watches in the price range of Rs 6,700-Rs 1,70,000. However, the majority would be priced between Rs 12,000 and Rs 30,000. The collection would include Sportura, Premier and Spring Drive.

The company would operate in India through its 100 per cent subsidiary called Seiko Watch India Pvt Ltd. However, it already has service centres operating for a decade in cities of Kochi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai and plans to set up seven more in the next three years.

"We were studying the Indian market for a long time and wanted to build a brand name for long-term sustainable presence before launching the actual product," said Mr Kenji Hagiwara, Director, International Marketing Division, Seiko Watch Corporation. To begin with, Seiko watches would be available in the premium category multi-brand retail outlets and by next year in its flagship stores too. The company plans to have a presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. However, it is also looking to expand in tier-2 cities of Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Kochi and Ludhiana.

These watches would be competing with the likes of Tissor, Rado, Omega and other premium brands currently present in India, said Mr Atsushi Kaneko, Managing Director, Seiko Watch India.

"We want to go slow and hence we will launch only one flagship store in a metro city by March 2008. However, watches would be available in two retail outlets in Mumbai from tomorrow (Friday) and talks are on with retailers in other cities too," said Mr Niladri Mazumder, Head- Sales & Marketing (India), unwilling to disclose the names of the outlets.

In terms of the area of the flagship store, Mr Mazumder said it would be on the lines of Seiko's Paris and Singapore stores (about 1,200 sq ft). The company puts the market size of premium and luxury watches in India at around Rs 500 crore and plans to have a sizeable share in the coming years, he added.

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