In-Depth Titan, India’s Leading Watchmaker, Is Taking On The GPHG & The World

Last year, the massive Indian watch brand Titan, a manufacturer worthy of its name, entered the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the Oscars of the watch world. Any brand can enter a watch in the competition as long as it meets the GPHG's guidelines, but for India's watchmaking giant, it was a particularly meaningful exercise. Last year’s entry was the Jalsa Tourbillon, which is produced under the Nebula by Titan sub-brand and features a solid rose gold and jade case, a micro-painted marble dial and an in-house flying tourbillon at six o’clock.

That was a pretty big deal from a brand that is the opposite of niche, producing over 15 million watches a year. To put things in perspective, that is more than the entire Swiss watch industry, and ranks Titan alone as the fifth biggest watch producer in the world.

Naturally, the hand-crafted Jalsa Tourbillon, a 10-piece limited-edition, métiers d’art flying tourbillon watch inspired by Indian tradition, is a halo model for Titan, which mostly makes affordable quartz watches. With 120 to 130 hours spent crafting the dial alone, CHF 38,000 for each of the ten pieces seemed rather affordable. This year, Titan is entering the GPHG again, but this time with an ultra-slim titanium watch with a fiercely modern vibe, the Edge UltraSlim Mechanical, that's a little more attainable than the Jalsa Tourbillon.

Titan’s catalogue has evolved in step with India's ever-growing economy, and the Edge UltraSlim Mechanical is an evolution of its slim Edge quartz collection. Its open-worked calibre is 2.2mm, with the grade 2 titanium case adding up to a svelte total of 5.7mm. Driven by the thin pursuit of less overlap in the gear train, it is quite wide at 40mm, offering modern visual clarity and an integrated bracelet in brushed titanium.

The sapphire crystal is cup-shaped and covers the distinct minimal dial, which comes in black or white with a wide outer chapter ring sporting hour markers surrounding central rotating discs for hours and minutes. The Edge 903 calibre sits under a four-screw-fixed sapphire case back with dark grey bridgework in a fine-grained finish, with decent polished chamfers and vibrant sunray-brushed wheels and gears. It boasts a charmingly large balance at four o’clock, and is a hand-wound 4 Hz movement with potential for increased accuracy in its stated +/- 12 secs a day - but bear in mind, I haven’t talked about the price yet. The retail price of the Edge UltraSlim is CHF 3,000, about A$5,250, and a fraction of what you can expect to pay for this level of thin-tech in a mechanical watch today.

Indeed, I don’t know of any in-house ultra-slim mechanical watch available for under A$20,000, so if you’re looking at an entry ticket to the exciting, mechanically innovating world of wristwatch Ozempic, this is a great start. For reference, as of publishing, the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate 910P with its 4.3mm case runs A$65,000+, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo at 6.4mm thick starts at A$22,800, while the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Date at 7.9mm is more accessible at around A$16,300. While these are all exemplary pieces of Swiss-made craftsmanship on a much higher level than the Edge UltraSlim Mechanical, the Titan's value for money is indisputable when measured in millimetres.

To understand better what Titan is and what it is trying to achieve, I sat down with CEO Kuruvila ‘Diny’ Markose earlier this year for a chat. Ironically, this took place in a suite at the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva, in the midst of a Swiss industry lacking in serious large-scale competition except from China and Japan.

“India’s growth will be around 6% or 8% this year; apart from that, there's no real debate on the economy in India,” Markose tells me as we touch on the rising purchasing power of India’s watch-buying public. “The other thing is that we're now the world's most populous country, but unlike China, we have a very young population. The big shift is that we've become the IT factory for the world, and a global capability centre for many companies.”

This comes in parallel with Korean and Japanese car companies moving small hatchback production to India, as well as motorcycles. “Just as Royal Enfield sells into developed markets, we believe some of the products we're showcasing here would make a lot of sense there,” Markose says, showing me the quartz version of the Edge. “Take this one I'm wearing, the Edge, our slim brand. It has a 1.15mm quartz movement inside, which we developed 25 years ago.”

That’s right: the UltraSlim Edge Mechanical is the first mechanical version of an existing line of quartz watches, with the one in Markose’s hand being ceramic. “What's interesting about this one is the brushed satin finish on ceramic, which not many people have done, at a price point of US$600,” Markose shares. Quartz is quartz, but still, this is microbrand-beating value from a large, established brand, just one that's not been on our usual radar.

Markose took on the role as CEO close to a year ago but has been with Titan for more than 10 years and is easily one of the most enthusiastic brand leaders I have spoken to, with an infectious energy. “I joined Titan as Chief Digital Officer for the first four years, and the next six years I was the CEO for all our businesses outside India,” Markose tells me, a group arm which included watches and jewellery as well as eyecare.

“Now I've moved to look at watches, and to me, watches are a very interesting inflection point,” he says. “Over the last few years, because of the premiumization happening in India, we need to make these kinds of watches, because if we don't, we'll get left behind.”

Titan is part of the enormous Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, and is a lifestyle brand that encompasses more than watches, with wristwear brands including Fastrack, Sonata, Xylys and Nebula, as well as eyewear and jewellery. With three assembly plants and a division staff of 4,000+, Titan is a heavy hitter, with a total group revenue in the region of US$7 billion, with watches representing around US$550 million of that, and a 60% share of its home market. Including smartwatches, the production output is close to 18 million watches, a baffling figure but with a scale that is proportionate to Titan’s populous Indian base and its growing purchasing power.

“The core business is in sub-US$300 watches, what we've called Mainline Analog, [and] needs to continue,” says Markose. “It's the bread and butter, the money that lets us invest in other spaces. We've also created a division called Premium and Luxury Analog, and a third division doing smartwatches." Wisely, Premium and Luxury Analog was created separately because, as noted by Markose, to make higher-priced watches, you need a separate focus. The big question is, with a Swiss luxury industry in a challenging position, is a new contender now waiting in the wings?

“It would be presumptuous of us to start thinking that way,” Markose says with a smile. ”We've got to be realistic. India isn't known as a watchmaking country. So I don't think that's necessarily the case, but I do think there's a space for another ‘daily driver’ - Frederique Constant did exactly that.“

Markose notes that the reality is that even in China, watchmaking capability has improved but costs have gone up, so there's a natural movement on the cards. “Let me give an example: after the Second World War, the Japanese came into automobiles, consumer durables, electronics," he says. “Sony, Toyota, Nissan emerged, initially cheap and cheerful, then they got better, and finally Toyota built a Lexus.”

Titan, it seems, is finally building its own Lexuses.