With its 1.2 billion inhabitants, India appears to be one of the most promising markets for the global watch trade. After a long period of total closure to imported luxury goods, the country opened its borders just a crack, then followed with a gradual lowering of its customs duties and various taxes, which today can still account for 65% of the sales price.
By first totally protecting its industry, then slowly opening its markets to foreign firms, India was able to build its own watch sector. In the beginning was the historical HMT. Then came the giant Titan which, with 7,000 to 8,000 sales points, now controls 50% of the overall watch market. With this strong position and a watch industry that was ready to confront the competition, India was able to open its marketplace to outside products while at the same time avoiding savage deregulation.
On the other side of the coin, India’s protectionist attitude also allowed the creation and healthy propagation of a very powerful grey and black market, which even today represents 70% to 80% of total watch sales. When you add the number of watches purchased abroad, especially in the Swiss haut de gamme category, it is hard to get an accurate assessment of the actual watch market in India. The numbers vary depending on what you read and to whom you are talking but the following gives an overall idea of the current situation.

Who buys whatı
If we consider only the haut de gamme market in India, which means price tags of €2,000 and over, estimates are that some 7 million people, or 0.5% of the population, would be potential customers.
For the upper mid-range, with prices between €800 and €1,000, the ever-increasing target population is about 100 million people. If we consider that 20 to 25 watches of all kinds are sold per year for each 1,000 inhabitants in India (compared to 100 watches per 1,000 inhabitants in developed countries), it is clear that the potential for growth is quite large.
In the area of the low and lower mid-range segments, the potential volumes are obviously much greater.
Regarding actual turnover, it is very difficult to have a totally clear estimate. According to some, the grey market represents about €144 million in sales for all watch categories, including imports of cheap component parts that are assembled in India. The total annual market is in the neighbourhood of about €160 to €165 million. In this context, it is easy to understand why Omega, for example, which is estimated to sell about 12,000 pieces at an average price of €3,000, is the giant in the luxury sector in India with a turnover of about €36 million. Whatever the exact numbers are, one thing is certain. The potential is there, and it is a very promising market in the midst of a major reorganization.


A market in (trans)formation
India, which up to now was simply a watch market, is modernizing and becoming a brand market. There are many entities vying for position in the subcontinent, from large groups wanting to gain a foothold, even to the point of losing money for the first few years, to independents that have been in the country for a long time, to local players solidly implanted in the marketplace and the onslaught of Asian brands. To this eclectic mix, we can also add fakes and counterfeit products.
Today, what is important, it seems, is to ‘be there’. Not a month or a week goes by without hearing that X or Y brand has introduced its products into this South Asian marketplace. Sometimes, and even often, this introduction might simply be in a sumptuous boutique in a palace-like hotel, preferably the Taj in Mumbai, a property of the Tata group, itself owner of Titan. This represents the beginning of a network, which, in the haut de gamme, does not require comprehensive coverage over the country. A dozen or so sales points are sufficient for a luxury brand to establish itself in India.
For those brands that target other volumes, the market is as complicated as the geography, the society and the culture of a nation that is still is fighting to overcome the poverty endemic to a large portion of its population. However, the pieces are in place and the race to get the best positions has started.
The dossier that follows is the first in a series that Europa Star will dedicate over the coming year to the world’s most promising markets for the watch trade. The articles, analyses, reports and interviews that we will present don’t pretend to paint the entire portrait of these complex markets. Our aim is to point out new and useful avenues that merit further reflection.


Indian conception of time
“The Indian conception of time is very different from what the Western mind regards as intuitively obvious. In Indian thought, time, like other phenomena, is conceived statically rather than dynamically. It is, of course, recognized that the things of this world are always moving and changing. But the substance of things is seen as basically unchanging, its underlying reality unaffected by the ceaseless flux. The Indian does not concede that we never step into the same river twice; he directs our attention not to the flow of water but to the river itself, the unchanging universal. Indian thought places a high value on universality, and the connection between this, and the static conception of phenomena, is of course not accidental.”The one remains, the many change and flee."
This static conception of time permeates Indian thought. [In contrast,] Western people comprehend action through its changing aspects, while Indians tend to comprehend it attributively. In particular, many Indians consider that action is an unchanging aspect, even an attribute, of existence. Westerners tend to regard action as an active phenomenon while Indians tend to look upon it statically."
The Notion of Time in India: An Introduction
Professor Charles Ess, Drury College
From Hajime Nakamura's Notion of Time in India




TO BE CONTINUED...
In the forthcoming days, the rest of this lenghty survey will be added to our europastar website.

India, From a watch market to a brand market

 Indian conception of time

India, Analysis: Overall Indian Watch Market

 A 7% growth in 2003

 The Infrastructure challenge

India, Profile: Titan, the inevitable giant

 Interview: Bhaskar Bhat, Titan's CEO

India, Distribution: India's evolving work of distribution

India, Distribution:

 TAG Heuer offers luxury watches in India at 0% financing

 LVMH is in India to stay

 Omega: to stay number one

 Piaget: 13 points of sales

 Edox to follow Swatch by skin

 Girard-Perregaux & JeanRichard unveils first exclusive boutique -Raymond Weil

 Chopard: taxes should be lowered -Harry Winston: India enters a new time zone