Titan , remembers me of a good old story.I got my first watch as a gift from my dad , on my birthday during my 7th grade , as I was always pestering him to get me one and I was damn adamant that I wanted a Titan.I dont know why though, but Titan is the one I wanted, may be I was brainwashed by the ads on TV or something.Infact I raked up a big hue and cry when I got some watch with no TITAN name on it , so to satisfy me he got me one of those TITAN, and no doubt I was maha-thrilled.
Over time I have bought many of their models ranging from their Indiglo, which was a rage and it again caught my fancy , and if I fancy anything , it was a pain for my dad.The recent one which I possess is one of their steel watches, ofcourse as a gift, but not from my dad though.(now I cant ask him, that is the big problem when we grow up ).
Okay, enough of my story, but there are many pointers above.The first one is their brand positioning, which happens to be their strong point .Infact conventional HMT and other Indian brands maybe equally good, talking of quality , but Titan have caught the attention of the masses by their strategic advertising (evident by me identifying with it when I was in 7th grade).Other things to be noted is they usually come up with so many ranges, and some of which have become a household name like Fasttrack, Regalia etc.FOr eg, talking above of sporty sort of digital watches Indiglo, which was very unique to Indian markets then and was branded mainly for the college going types.They were also the first one to enter into the virgin premium space which was quite unheard of in India and bring in some sophistication in an otherwise jaded , lackluster appearence of Indian watches through their Tanishq, Nebula, Bandhan range. But the interesting thing was to change the mindset of consumers to buy those expensive ones .So it was very smartly marketed as an ideal gift for important special occasions like marriage which is one affair in Indian tradition where people are very spendthrifty .So apart from bride and bridegroom , who would have purchased it for the occassion of marriage , you could also expect to recieve hazaar Titan watches as gifts from relatives.I am telling you this because on the occassion of a marriage in our house, we had so many watches that we did not know what to do with so many of them.
But with time ticking, things have hotted up in recent couple of years with opening of Indian market and entry of Swiss brands and brands like Tissot, CK, Tag Heur being the IN thing .Talking atleast of the present trend, gone are the days of people wearing those sethjis styled bulky gold plated watches.Slim, slick and glistening steel is the IN vogue thing and Titan did catch up on this in bringing their latest steel line of watches priced in the range around 6-8K, and again pushing very hard through slick marketing targetting the core urban youth .
But the pricing of Titan(with starting range from 1.5K) is one big advantage in Indian markets that make it immune from any competition with entry from foriegn brands.Even slightly high end premium watches from Titan like Regalia is way cheaper compared to any cheapest Swiss brands like Swatch or Tissot.But at high end premium range Swiss watches will definitely cut into the market of Titan, no doubt about that.
Durability, is one thing which we can never argue when it comes to Titan , they just never ever wear out, until we get bored of it .All my Titan watches are in perfect condition proving every claim of waterproof, scratchproof and all proofs, inspite of my rough handling , I just could not get rid of them and already have become a vintage possession for me .