TITAN COMPANY LIMITED
ABOUT:
HISTORY:
PORTFOLIO:
Titan Company Limited is the fifth largest integrated watch manufacturer in the world that is still in the hands of its original founders. Having started as Titan Industries Limited, a company devoted to the crafting of time telling devices for the Indian market, Titan has spent the last three decades in diversifying its product portfolio to include Jewellery, Backpacks, Eyewear, Belts, Wallets and Perfume.
Titan Company Limited was born in 1984 out of a joint venture between the TATA Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). Titan is credited for having created a paradigm shift in the Indian Watch Market with the introduction of quartz watches marketed as objects of style and fashion. Prior to the birth of Titan, the Indian Watch Market was dominated by the state run companies HMT (hindustan Machine Tools) and Allwyn who were unable match supply to the growing demand for watches.
In India, Titan is known for having decentralized the luxury of owning a watch by creating a Titan watch for everyone across a wide price spectrum. It is in line with this pedigree that Titan created ‘Sonata’, known for its unbeatable value for money.
With a retail footprint of over 1400 stores, Titan Company has India’s largest specialty retail network spanning over 240 towns. Today, Titan Company Limited is TATA’s largest consumer company, and India’s leading producer and retailer of watches, jewellery, eyewear and accessories.
In 1989, Titan’s first watch collection, Titan Acura (short for accuracy), featured trendy watch designs and were more accurate and affordable than their mechanical watch competitors. This collection was extremely well received and it set the tone for Titan to dominate the market.
In 1998, Titan launched ‘Fastrack’ as a collection and it became an independent urban youth brand in 2005. By 2009, Fastrack had further extended its own product portfolio to include watches, eyewear and accessories like a range of bags, belts and wallets. In another pioneering act, Titan brought several international watch brands into the Indian market along with its own Swiss made watch, ‘Xylys’, through its chain of Helios watch stores.
Graduation Project | Titan Vision Next: Explorations in Recrafting the Watch Proposition | 19
