Omega's middle class customer is strictly high end

Omega aims to compete with the jewellery segment in India and not so much with other watch makers right now. The launch of two high-end ladies' watches just before the start of the wedding season is testimony to that. Some 520 tonnes of gold were bought in India in 2004. The wedding market made up most of this. Omega sees this as the potential market.

The increasing opulence of the middle classes has prompted the Swiss watch maker, Swatch group, to set up boutiques of its top-end brand, Omega. Now Bangalore too has an Omega boutique. To open the boutique none other than Stephen Urquhart, president, Omega himself was in Bangalore.

"We sell dreams, not just watches. It is the middle classes who are our target here. It is a huge untapped market," says Urquhart.

But his definition of teh middle class is a bit exclusive. To him a person from the middle class is one who can afford an Omega watch without having to sacrifice on his basic necessities.

Omega launched two high-end ladies' watches under the name Omegamania in Bangalore on Wednesday. A red gold version priced at Rs 2,82,000 and a white gold version priced at Rs 3,18,000. The models were launched first in India.

They were displayed earlier was at Basel where only a preview of the watch was made. The IT industry in Bangalore is very attractive for Omega. "The higher incomes of the IT professionals is a big market whose aspirations are yet to be fulfilled," believes Urquhart. Its watches begin around Rs 50,000 and go upto a few lakhs. But, to keep the watches affordable, Omega has kept its margins low and it sees the high import duties and taxes as the biggest hurdle to its pricing.

"We hope that taxes will be cut," says Urquhart, for the watches to be cheaper.

For him, India, China and South East Asian countries are similar in their tastes and consumer behaviour. In these markets gold jewellery holds sway, and with conspicuous consumption being the custom Omega is playing on that sentiment of Indians.