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Vinay Kamath

Chennai, Aug. 15 To crack open the mass market and take on the threat of cheap Chinese watches and others of spurious quality, Titan Industries has launched nationally a new brand, Sonata Super Fibre. Sonata is Titan’s brand for the economy market and is the largest watch brand in India in terms of volume sales, with five million watches sold last year.

The SF watches in plastic are a combination of analogue and digital watches and are priced in the band Rs 275-Rs 550 and targets the youth segment in the age group of 16-20 years. Available in trendy and sporty designs they would be on offer across 12,000 watch outlets and non-traditional chains, according to Mr Shekhar Agarwal, Brand Manager, Sonata.

The company is targeting sales of 4 lakh SF watches this year. According to Mr Agarwal, the branded and organised market of plastic watches is miniscule with close to 7-8 lakh watches. The total estimated plastic watch market is around 2-3 million watches, which primarily is a combination of cheap Chinese imports and local manufacture.

Titan will be sourcing the watches from different vendors in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. “We didn’t have a watch at this price point; we are still at the high end of the mass market and the highest priced mass market brand. This year, we expect to ratchet up sales of Super Fibre,” says Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director. Even though the watches would be sourced from the very places the cheap imports come from, the watches will carry the Sonata brand and have access to service stations, apart from a Titan warranty, explained Mr Bhat.

Meanwhile, Titan, which earlier had a watch brand — Dash — for kids expects to re-enter the market. At present, there are no big organised players in the kids market and no real estimates of the size of watch market. “However, we do know that the opportunity, especially in the context of growing purchasing power of kids segment in other categories, is huge,” says Ms Suparna Mitra, Global Marketing Head, Titan.

Adds Mr Bhat, “At that time, Dash was still not making money but the potential for sale was there and we knew that window was not going to close. Nobody could come and dominate the market. We postponed it, but now people are willing to spend a decent amount on kids and this year will see a kids’ brand.” Titan is also looking at other offerings to plug gaps in its portfolio. There’s a trend towards mechanical and automatic watches in the high end. Titan has a brand called Nebula Zeus in this category, which is priced at Rs 1.1 lakh, and more such offerings are on the way, according to Mr Bhat.

The company, which retails under licence a couple of global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, expects to retail a couple more. Talks are on with brands such as Lacoste and Dolce & Gabbana, though, according to Mr Bhat, nothing is finalised as yet. “It’s to complement our range, pure play retail,” he adds.

The Indian watches market is estimated at 42 million watches in fiscal 2007-08, growing 12 per cent in value terms. However, the unorganised sector constitutes 60 per cent of this market.

More Stories on : Strategy | Brands | Watches & Accessories

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