C.K. Venkatraman, MD, Titan Company, cycles to office every day. Is he an Apple watch aficionado? Not at all. He never wears any watch other than a Titan. When he cycles or works out, it is invariably a smartwatch from the Titan stable which adorns his wrist. However, he does agree that smartwatches have been a struggle for Titan. “We are reimagining smartwatches altogether,” he says.

When he meets us on a Monday afternoon at his gorgeous office in Bangalore (which overlooks a recycled water lake), he is dressed in a crisp white shirt and black jeans. His watch, a Titan Edge Squircle, with a blue ceramic band perfectly accessorises his outfit. When I quiz him about his watch, he says, “I chose this because I was wearing a black jacket and jeans. I would have probably worn a bright yellow strap had it been some other kind of meeting or if I wanted to show another side of me. So, the expression of your personality, the coordination with your outfits, and your status – there are multiple roles of an analog watch and it is belief in those multiple roles that is steering the strategy of our watch business.”

A few quarters ago, Titan Company’s watch division seemed a little confused. This was the time when smartwatches and wearables were taking away market share and the traditional analog watches were stagnating. Titan’s tryst with smartwatches was not particularly successful and the watch business showed lacklustre growth. The story today is quite different – the watch division has grown by 17.2% year-on-year (Rs 4,576 crore) and registered a 39.3% EBIT growth. And, this growth has come on the back of a complete reimagination of its good old analog watch portfolio.

“We understood these are completely different (smartwatches and analog). There are some people who will completely move out of analog, but some people who wear smartwatches are also into analog, so, the question was how do we continue to connect them with analog. There were some who won’t touch a smartwatch, especially the older generation, so, how do we really cultivate them to wear better analog watches. The whole thrust was on product innovation and creation of unbelievably sleek watches all the time, using material, using movements, calibers, different mechanical technologies, straps as well branding and retailing,” he explains.

Venkatraman’s Squircle is a Rs 45,000 timepiece with a ceramic strap, sapphire crystal glass and 30% water-resistance. He confidently says that no Swiss-made brand or a brand from any other part of the world would be able to give a product with that kind of styling, finish and reliability at that price. “A Swiss brand offering this kind of product would be at least Rs 2 lakh.” That’s what Titan’s is game is all about – offer high quality premium watches within the Rs 25,000 to Rs 45,000 price bracket.

The rationale has been to offer consumers a really good quality analog watches that they can’t refuse. The thrust has been on product innovation and creation of new looking stuff all the time, using material, using movements, calibers and different mechanical technologies. It also upped its retailing game by upgrading its existing Titan and Helios stores as well as opening a luxe offering of Helios.

But will an Indian consumer who is widely travelled give up a like Diesel or Hugo Boss which has a higher fashion quotient for a premium Titan watch? “You go to a Shoppers Stop or Lifestyle there is every brand that you can think off, Japanese, American and other fashion brands, but we are by far the no.1 brand,” claims Venkatraman. “A decent number of those customers would be those who grew up with Titan, whose first watch was a Titan, who would have bought a Titan when they got married. They have grown out of middle class and are now wealthy and Titan would have accompanied them in that journey. They are fond of Titan and not too enamoured of brands for brands sake. They would give weight for product value,” he further explains.

While the brand’s sweet-spot for growth has been the Rs 25,000-Rs 45,000 price-point, it has been premiumising across the board. It has launched premium variants under its mass-offerings Sonata and Fastrack as well. It also sees an opportunity in upping its ante in the Rs 2 lakh-4 lakh price-points which is traditionally occupied by the Swiss brands. The plan is to offer a watch in the Rs 2-4 lakh price points which would have all the features that a high-end Swiss brand would offer at Rs 10 lakh.

“If we create products for Rs 2.5 lakh or 4 lakhs, but intrinsically, they have materials, calibers, dials, water-resistance features, sapphire crystals and all that which any international brand gives for Rs 10 lakh it will work. With that we can start moving up the chain and soon launch a Rs 10 lakh watch,” says Venkatraman.

But isn’t Titan already trying to rub shoulders with Swiss luxury watch brands with the launch of the limited edition Rs 40.5 lakh Nebula Jalsa? Venkatraman admits Titan is way behind the Swiss in terms of expertise. “The Tourbillon movement which is there in Nebula Jalsa is 200-years-old, and the Swiss have been always doing it. We have made it only in the last one year. But Tourbillon is like a north star which pulls us faster, so that in the Rs 2 lakh-5 lakh bracket, we have a fighting chance to do well.”

Titan may be far behind the storied Swiss watch brands, but Venkatraman has surely sown the seeds for the homegrown brand to give a tough fight to the Swiss.