New Delhi: Leading watch maker Titan is betting big on premiumization in the segment and expects watches priced above Rs 25,000 to contribute nearly a quarter of its revenue in about 2-3 years, a company official said.
Titan is also expanding the number of stores of Helios and Helios Luxe, its retail chain that sells watches priced at Rs 25,000 and above, as the premium and affordable luxury segments are growing at a CAGR of 30 per cent, Titan Watch division CEO Kuruvilla Markose told PTI.
“We have about 10 Helios Luxe stores and we are adding more as we go. In this current financial year, we hope to expand that number to over 30 and for Helios, we have about 300 stores and they are doing extremely well. This format for us is growing rapidly,” Markose said.
Furthermore, growing demand for premium watches and a maturing domestic market could help India emerge as the world’s third largest watch hub, after Switzerland and the Far East ecosystem of Japan and China, he said.
“We believe that time is coming,” Markose said, adding that as the market matures and consumers increasingly seek higher quality products at higher prices, local manufacturing capabilities will continue to evolve.
According to Markose, a “tipping point” has already arrived for India’s premium watch segment: nearly 50 percent of the domestic watch market now comprises products priced above Rs 25,000, a proportion that will continue to rise in terms of value.
India is also witnessing the “emergence of a strong watch culture” focused on craftsmanship and innovation, he added.
“For us at Titan India, we see (India) emerging as a third country or a third power in watchmaking. And that is what we are focusing on. We want to ensure that we take Indian watchmaking to the global watch market,” he said.
However, Markose also added that the mass market segment will continue to expand as consumers shift from unbranded watches to branded ones. From a volume perspective, lower prices will continue to dominate. Through its FastTrack and Titan World retail chains, the company will also continue to focus on opportunities in the mass and Masstige (a combination of “mass” and “prestige”) segments.
“So the interesting thing about India is that all these segments are doing well. For us, even FastTrack and Sonata are growing very well, and the premium brands like Xylys and Edge that we have, they are all doing well,” he added.
Titan has two affordable offerings in this segment – Poze, a sub-brand of Sonata, and Vyb, a sub-brand of Fastrack, with prices starting between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500.
“In terms of revenue contribution, all the watches, around Rs 25,000 together, represent around 15 per cent of the revenue for us,” he said.
It expects this segment to contribute more than 25 percent of Titan’s watch segment revenue.
When asked about the timeline, he said, “In the next two or three years, we will see it grow significantly. We are growing at around 30 percent in those segments, in certain cases, maybe more. So if we do the math, hopefully, we will have more than that number in the next few years.”
It also expects an increase in sales of Swiss watches in India following the recent India-EU Free Trade Agreement, which has further reduced import duties on such products.
Tariffs on Swiss watches have already been reduced from around 22 per cent to 15 per cent under the India-EFTA pact, which came into force on October 1, 2025. The India-EU FTA is expected to bring further reductions.
“Tariffs have fallen from around 22 percent to 16 percent and will eventually fall further to zero in 2031,” he said, adding that “this makes products coming from Europe and Switzerland more attractive.”
Titan has brought in a lot of Swiss brands like Herbelin, Auguste Raymond and U-Boat. “We will continue to bring more as we go,” Markose said.
