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— G.R.N. Somashekar

Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries, flanked by Mr Harish Bhat, COO, Watches (left), and Mr C. Srinivasan, Business Head – Sonata, at the launch in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Sept. 2 Sonata, the watch brand from the Tatas, launched the Super Fibre targeted at the sub-Rs 500 market in urban, semi-urban and rural India.

The watches have been designed primarily for youth in the 16-30 age group, and will be available in a price range of Rs 275 to Rs 550. The tag line for this sub-brand is ‘Super Strong, Super Style’.

Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries, said that with the new product, Sonata was on its way towards becoming a 10-million-watches-per-year brand in the next three years.

“This will make Sonata one of the largest volume brands of watches in the world,” he added. The estimated size of the plastic watches market is around 7-8 million.

The sub-brand would have a range of 68 designs — 47 in the anolog watches category, and the rest digital. The entire range, which is water-resistant too, comes with a one-year replacement warranty, said Mr Harish Bhat, COO, Watches, Titan Industries. The analog watches would be in the Rs 275-475 price band, and the digital ones would be priced between Rs 400 and Rs 500.

The target for Super Fibre sub-brand is to achieve the one-million mark by 2009-10. There will be 360-degree marketing campaign for the new offerings, Mr Harish Bhat said.

The company also unveiled its TV commercial featuring Indian ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, “in a brand new avatar”, according to the company press release. Distribution would be done through 12,000 retail outlets in 2,500 towns across the country.

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