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From those early time pieces which had only the hour
hand, had to be wound twice a day and were notoriously
inaccurate to the Quartz watches with their daily variation
equivalent to even less than a second per day to Tourbillion
which does away the difference in time accuracy to the
extent of a fraction of a nano second-the watch industry
has indeed come a long way. Where does India stand in
this journey?
The Indian Watch Industry
Well, the picture is rosy and ticking with excitement.
The annual demand for watches in India is around 25-27
million and this number is growing at the rate of around
15% per anum. Survey shows that there has been a marked
growth in the market for both low-end mechanical watches
and expensive Quartz watches. This growth can be attributed
to the changing attitudes of people and also due to
increasing disposable incomes. The low-income group
people no longer consider watch a luxury item, it is
more of a necessity now. Survey shows this group constituted
75% of the mechanical watches purchased last year. The
upper middle and high income groups consider watches
more as fashion accessories than time-keeping devices,
thus demand for Quartz watches having a high design
content is also growing at a fast pace. A luxury watch
is a natural flaunt with haute couture. A man who flaunts
a sports watch is obviously macho. There is sleek for
the sophisticated, who don't care much about fashion,
but are conscious about style.
The Indian watch market can be broadly classified into
the following segments.
The high-end segment
This generally caters to the high-income group people
for whom watches are more than simple instruments to
denote the passage of time. They are a style statement.
Watches in this segment
could cost you anything between Rs 30,000 to nine lakh
and even more. The sports and jewellery watches fall
in this category. Exclusivity, fashion, and style are
the key factors of these watches. The luxury and sports
watch segment is dominated by two major players - the
Vendome Luxury Group and the Suisse Microelectronique
et d'Horologerie (SHM), more popularly known as Swatch.
The Vendome brands include names like Cartier, Alfred
Dunhill, Mont Blanc, Piaget, Baume & Mercier, Vacheron
Constantin and Lancel. Swatch has Tissot, Omega, Christian
Dior, Certina, Mido, Pierre Balmain and Calvin Klein
under its umbrella. Apart from these there are a few
brands like Givenchy, Westend and Versace, which are
stand alones. This segment also includes fashion watches
like Gucci, Versace, Givenchy and Fendi.
The mid-range segment
 This
segment is combination of style and utility. A few foreign
and a lot of Indian brands rule this segment. Titan
is one of the most popular brands in the mid range segment.
They offer you jewellery watches, the Raga line of ethnic
Indian watches and a few designer ones. Price ranges
from Rs 3,300 to Rs 15,000 for the top end models. Their
recently launched Fastrack range also has an amazing
variety both for men and women. The prices range from
about Rs 800 to 2,500. Many models of foreign brands
like Tissot, Seiko, Citizen, Elle Paris and Elle Studio
fall into this segment. Even a few Gucci brands are
available between the price range of Rs 13,000 and Rs
15,000. Another strong player in the mid range segment
is Swatch, where you have prices ranging between Rs
1,450 to Rs 5,350.
 The
lower end segment
Watches belonging to this segment are bought mainly
for their utility! A lot of Japanese brands like Citizen
and Seiko dominate this segment. These are watches you
can pick up from any street corner shop. While you can
get a Citizen for as little as Rs 200, on the higher
side the price could go up to Rs 700 to Rs 800. HMT
watches too fall under this segment and can be brought
for as less as Rs 400 upwards.
Foreign players
Until India's independence, imported watches and clocks,
as most other commodities, were openly available. During
this period Swiss watches accounted for almost the entire
imports in the country, whereas clocks were imported
largely from Japan & Germany. After 1947, in order
to boost local watch manufacturers, imports were restricted
to a quota system. Watches were imported in a semi-assembled
condition, the dial & cases in a separate parcel.
The Indian manufacturers assembled and marketed them.
Thus was born the established importers' license. This
trend continued until 1976-77 after which the Government
of India changed its import policy and the established
importers' license was scrapped.
Now licenses were given only to manufacturers to import
all parts of a watch but under a committed phased manufacturing
programme. This however was not very successful as not
many importers took up production as promised in their
phased manufacturing programme. In the 1998-99 Union
Budget, the government allowed imports of fully assembled
watches with cost insurance freight above Rs 5,000.
 This
opened up a new era in the history of Indian watch industry.
Foreign companies started looking at India in a new
light. Today, several international brands like Casio,
Omega, Piaget, Citizen, Seiko, Patek Phillipe, Rolex
and Westar have entered the Indian market and have established
a presence through marketing and distribution tie-ups.
If the Swiss manufacturers have won the heart of the
Indians by their variety of Quartz watches, the Japanese
have bewildered us with their digital brands. There
are various models from leading Japanese brands like
Casio and Citizen which apart from telling you the time
also offers a host of other functions like telephone
data bank, temperature indicator, altitude and depth
gauge. In fact Seiko has introduced a watch packed with
a mini digital camera and another with a MP3 player,
which can download music from the Net. The most attractive
factor of a Japanese watch is perhaps the price factor.
You can get a Japanese watch offering a host of function
at a much lower price compared to a Swiss watch.
Both Swiss and Japanese brands have opened retail outlets
in different parts of the country. People can now sit
across the counter of a retail outlet and browse through
the latest international models of watches. These come
with authentication, guaranty and warranty, reliable
after-sales service. This has in a way brought an end
to the practice of snooping around in the nooks and
corners of grey markets looking for smuggled phoren
watches. However, with the entry of the foreign brands
the domestic watch manufacturers are expected to face
increasing competition. What is the scenario of the
domestic watch market today?
Domestic watch market
The Indian watch industry can be broadly classified
into two broad segments: the organised sector and the
unorganised or 'grey' sector. The main players in the
organised sector are HMT Limited (HMT), Titan Industries
Limited and Timex Watches Limited. These three players
together account for over 80% of the production of the
organised sector. The rest 20% of this sector is taken
up by small players like Indo-French Time Industries
Limited, Bifora, Indo-Swiss Time Industries, Amar Watch
Limited, Sakura Seimitsu, Bentex and Sikkim Time Corporation.
The small-scale sector, comprising over a hundred manufacturers,
primarily caters to the component requirements of the
organised sector. The unorganised or the 'grey' sector
primarily sells smuggled watches and caters to the lower
end of the market. It is estimated that watches and
movements valued between Rs 1,500 million to Rs 3,000
million are smuggled into the country every year.
Of the domestic brands Titan is perhaps the biggest
player. Its foray into the manufacture of Quartz watches
in 1987 resulted in its emergence as a leader in the
analog Quartz segment. Titan has practically redefined
the watch industry in India. The company's marketing
strategy of repositioning watches as a 'life style'
article instead of just a 'time keeping device' has
led to the creation and expansion of the markets for
analog Quartz watches in India. Over the years their
oversees sales have also gone up. They have created
a niche for themselves in countries like Middle East,
Africa, and parts of Asia. They are also tapping the
European market for further expansion. Major manufacturers
of mechanical watches in the organised sector are HMT
and Hyderabad Allwyn Limited.
HMT started manufacturing Wrist Watches since 1962 and
today they have  four
integrated manufacturing units, employing highly skilled
work force, producing over 7 million high quality watches/Watch
movements per annum in hundreds of designs, in Mechanical
and Quartz. The technology for the manufacture of Watch
Movements and Watches has been acquired from Citizen,
Japan. HMT Watch manufacturing units have ISO-9001 certification.
They export their watches/watch movements to countries
in the Middle East, South East and Japan.
It is expected that in an environment of declining import
duties, and the slated entry of foreign brands, the
domestic market for watches will expand and become more
competitive.
Source: Times
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- Shravanti Choudhuri
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