Changing times: Timex enters Titan territory

US-based Timex Group has virtually withdrawn from the sub-'1,000 watch market, which was once its mainstay. The company thinks the '4,000-plus segment is now big enough as Indian consumers are willing to pay a premium for making a style statement.

V D Wadhwa, managing director of Timex group, says “Earlier we were selling cheaper watches at even below '1,000, as we believed India was a price-conscious market. But we soon realised it was not. And by selling watches cheap, we were only killing the brand.”

Wadhwa is bang on. Timex has seen the '4,000-plus segment growing over 68 per cent in value terms in the last one-and-a-half years. In comparison, the overall watch market has grown by 18 per cent per annum. Wadhwa expects this category to contribute almost a third to the overall kitty in the next two years, compared to 20 per cent now. The bulk of the company’s sales still comes from the segment between '1,000 and below '4,000, but that is changing fast.

While doing so Timex is entering into a tough competition zone where Titan Industries has already made its presence felt. The country’s largest watch maker wants to go one-up by having over half of its new launches in this price category. Titan recently launched a new range in the fashion segment – Purple – in the price range of '4,000-10,000.

Suparna Mitra, Global Marketing Head - Titan Industries, says, “Watches have lost their time-keeping relevance because of mobiles. They have become more of a fashion accessory.”

Wadhwa agrees. “Consumers are now looking for multi-functional watches with style, stop watch, chronograph, and dual timing – in simple terms, they want a complete fashion accessory. Once these functions are added, the price of such watches has to be over '4,000,” he says.

Wadhwa gives the example of the game played out in the automobile market. “The Maruti 800 consumer will always shift to a larger and more expensive car. The same transition is happening in watches as well,” he says.

Both the companies are targeting the same audience – young professionals. “This segment is exposed to international trends and owns multiple watches. We have a number of international designers working with us to constantly renew the range.” says Mitra.

Timex says its typical target customer is somebody with one to five years of work experience who likes to splurge and have the money for it. This, of course, means a key change in the way watches are sold. The old retail shops are a strict no-no since they are not trendy enough.

Timex is aggressively pushing its products in departmental stores. Its retail chain “Time Factory” is mostly located in shopping malls and since a large portion of the youth market is located in large cities, 75 per cent of the new outlets will be located in the top 10 cities. The plan is to double the number of these outlets from 72 now.

Titan’s strategy is similar. Mitra says the company is showcasing the Purple range in separate counters within the exclusive Titan stores and other multi-brand retail outlets. Titan has 300 ‘World of Titan’ stores and is present in 4,000 multi-brand stores. Mitra has chosen about 500 multi-brand outlets to push its fashion watch category.

Watch out for the next moves by the two companies.