Electronics major Casio today said it expects its watches business to grow 35-40 per cent this year as it expands its product portfolio with enhanced features, targeted especially at the youth.

“In the last five years, the segment has seen very good growth. While there are takers for every price range, watches in Rs 2,000-3,000 as well as Rs 7,000 category have started doing well. Overall, we expect to grow the business this year by 35-40 per cent,” Kulbhushan Seth, Vice President, Casio India said.

He, however, declined to comment on specific revenue numbers.

Casio, which also sells calculators, musical instruments as well as projectors, gets about 35-40 per cent of its revenues from watches.

Seth said the company sells about 8,00,000 units of watches a year across the price range of Rs 500-50,000.

The company today launched its new range of Bluetooth-powered G-Shock watches, priced at about Rs 10,000.

Users can get alerts about incoming calls and mails as well as notifications from networking sites like Facebook and Twitter on this range of watches.

Another feature introduced is phone finder, which lets the user track the handset using an alarm, if the device is misplaced. However, the watch is compatible only with Apple iPhone 4S and 5.

Asked if an Android version would be introduced, Seth said though currently there are no such announcements, bringing out such devices should not be difficult.

“Youth is an important category and we keep working on bringing the latest innovation for them. Our products and campaigns are designed keeping in mind this category of users who are conscious about the way the watch looks as well as how it performs,” he said.

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