Why Titan's sales head is counting down to quick commerce delivery of watches in 2025...

Rakesh Sharma (centre) was the first Indian to go into space. Titan has taken inspiration from his journey for its Stellar Collection. (Image courtesy Titan)

On April 3, 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go to space. Sharma, then 35, stayed at the Russian space station for over a week. To mark the 40th anniversary of the mission, Titan this month launched a limited-edition watch called Unity. In a conversation with Moneycontrol, Titan Chief of Sales and Marketing Rahul Shukla explained that Rakesh Sharma is a "friend" of the brand, and the Unity watch was roughly a year in the making. Over a video call, Shukla also spoke about Titan's split of online vs offline sales, Titan's in-house movement and Automatics, why he thinks the instant-delivery business model will grow in 2025 driven by impulse-buying for gifting purposes, travel retail and other trends to watch in 2025. Edited excerpts:

What trends are you seeing going into 2025?

So, it's not that on the 1st of January we'll start seeing the trends. I think those trends are already visible. If I look at a macro level, I think, there's a lot of flux in the economic environment; all these geopolitical ups and downs, the change of leadership in various countries, the impact on China and this whole Swiss ecosystem which has become very strong in India - we are seeing it in our Helios stores also, where the Swiss portfolio of watches actually has grown significantly. So these are the broad trends at a macro level.

But I think one of the very important trends is the focus on fashion, the storytelling. Consumers, more and more, are going to throng towards brands which are authentic in terms of their ability to tell stories. Everybody can tell a story. For example, everyone can create a collection inspired from stars, but to bring in authenticity to it, to bring in that genuineness, you have to go beyond just the design. You also have to marry the horology into it, you have to marry your material story into it. I think fashion and storytelling and this whole experience is one of the trends which will drive and propel the growth.

Another one, I feel and you also would have heard from various sources, is the whole quick commerce play on the innate consumer desire to acquire things at the earliest, and building capabilities at a cost which in the initial phase of the journey will probably be bleeding but over a period of time it will transform (buying).

Just the way the likes of Amazon and Flipkart transformed (buying) with the same day delivery or the next day delivery in the earlier days, now it is 15-minute delivery or half-an-hour delivery, and that is what is going to play on the consumer's impulse and definitely in the areas which present themselves to be utilized for impulses like gifting. Just like groceries, where there's a need for those products.

Impulse buying that happens on various gifting occasions could be one of the reasons why, particularly for watches, I think quick commerce is going to play a very important role in the near future.

Right now, there are only one or two people who are really leading the (quick commerce business) pack. But I think it's a matter of time, another three-four months, you'll see all the big players jumping into quick commerce and they will change the nature of the game, because suddenly from just a small, curated collection which gets delivered in 15 minutes, you will have a large wide collection which will be available in maybe an hour's time. So that will completely change the paradigm and consumers' expectations.

At the end of the day, the moment consumers' behaviour starts changing, it changes the way the industry operates. Everyone will have to align towards that consumer behavior. So, I see that as a very strong trend.

So, are you saying that I'm going to be able to Zepto or Instamart a Titan watch or are you also launching some sort of 15-minute delivery?

Tata Neu is doing something on that front, but that's a separate sister concern of ours. But yes, we ourselves are not doing anything but we would be present and we would actively participate in this journey because, at the end of the day, our objective is that we want to go wherever the consumers are going and occupy a leadership position there through various initiatives, whatever is apt for that particular channel, using the right brands, right products, right collection, right assortment for that particular channel.

So, if quick commerce is going to be something which will be very popular with the consumers, then that is what we'll have to do, and this is what we have already started doing. So, if you go on BlinkIt, you'll find Titan.

A few years ago, there was a lot of excitement around Omnichannel also. Is that a significant portion of your sales now or has that not played out in quite the way that people expected?

It's not a large portion of a sale; omnichannel accounts for a small portion of our sales but it is important. Significant portion of our sales, at the end of the day, through various social sites, it all comes down through our brand Titan's website through which we create substantial sales - one-third of which actually happens from our own website, and two-thirds of which goes to our stores or is serviced through our stores. So, it's a sizeable business.

Omnichannel has become hygiene now, there must have been an excitement at one point in time and I'm sure it must be something to be excited about (for) someone who's not done it or they are just about on the verge of exploring it. But we have been omnichannel for a few years now and at a very mature stage of functioning of the omnichannel. So, the orders from Tata Cliq, our service from our stores, from Titan website, people who consumers who come to our website are directed to our stores. Helios has its own website and, you know, the Omnichannel accounts for roughly 9-10 percent of Helios' business. So, ours is a very stable and growing business, we are excited about the fact that we have that capability already, but we have moved on to a little more the next level of what are the levers that will drive further growth.

What is your split of online versus offline sales?

Last year, it was roughly one-fifth which was online. It is likely to go up.

Even the larger price points?

At different price points, like I was mentioning, you have to do an appropriate brand channel play. The large part of the online business is actually happening at more accessible price points. So, let's say 80 percent of the online business would be happening in the value and the mid-premium segment and very little in the premium segment. Although everyone's efforts, the partners' efforts, as well as our own efforts are attuned towards driving premiumization even on that front. So, there is a growth. There's a three-digit growth which is happening on the high end. But the definition of premium on online is very different from the definition of premium in the on-ground space. In the online space, if you go to Myntra or Amazon, you'll find products, not SaaS, but generally anything above Rs 5,000 is considered premium there. For us, Rs 5,000 actually is the starting of the mid-premium segment. So, the definitions vary depending on the profile of consumers who are coming to those channels. But if you look at our own retail stores, premiumization has reached to a level where we're selling Rs 1.5 lakh watches and so on, so forth.

At the premium stage, Titan Automatics in the premium segment is growing in three digits as a result of this premiumization effort.

You mentioned the experience of engaging with the brand. Are you also revisiting what store design looks like for you in the future?

We had revamped our store interiors when we changed our format. This was around a couple of years back. Right now, we are into a process of transforming our entire retail chain and aligning it to that store identity, which is already very premium, international and absolutely attuned to selling luxury products, premium products. So, roughly 70 percent of our footprint is already in that retail identity. I think over the next one year or so, the entire footprint will actually be in that retail identity. In Helios particularly, all the stores are in the current retail identity. However, we are also keeping in mind the whole premiumization journey. We are now carving out and launching a new store format, where everything will be priced above INR 50,000. And the center of gravity will be between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh... Travel retail is another very strong lever of our growth. So, one of the Helios Luxe we've just recently opened is in T1 terminal in Delhi. We have one in Goa. We have one in Chennai.

When did Titan start planning the Unity watch?

It started with Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma who is a friend of the brand. We got associated with him last year when we launched Stellar 1.0, which was inspired from the celestial bodies and stars. It was very interesting to hear his observations about what he saw from space. One thing I can't get over is the fact that every 90 minutes, he said, I witnessed a sunrise.

And then we started thinking, because there was a convergence of two 40-year milestones happening at the same time: his historic flight into the space, which put India on the world map of space exploration; and, of course, Titan also completing 40 years...

Many of the things that have got captured in the watch are actually his view of the earth; how he saw it from space, against a midnight blue backdrop, with the celestial stars and all in the back. You have those Indian markers all across the dial (the tricolour across the 10, 12, 2 positions on the dial). And the seconds hand, which is shaped like a rocket, connoting the spacecraft in which he (Rakesh Sharma) went into space. And then on the back of the watch is inscribed his famous words, which is how he described India looked from space (Saare Jahan Se Achcha).

The watch is an ode to this journey of excellence, this great moment. India has traversed a distance in the field of space research, space exploration, and there have been a lot of successes that the world has talked about: Chandrayaan and now there's a lot of discussion around Gaganyaan. But actually, the whole journey started from his (Sharma's) momentous journey into the space, which gave a self-belief to the country and the countrymen that yes, we can. And that is what this celebrates.

We called it the watch of unity because in his own words, when he was looking down on earth, he did not see any boundaries. He did not see any divisions. It looked as it should be: one complete whole, a unified whole.

We launched it in a small, private event with the Wing Commander Sharma in Bangalore. And we gifted him the first watch in this limited edition (there are 180 pieces in all).

Is there a collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization ISRO? Since you mentioned these other missions...

We don't have any direct relationship with ISRO. That's a space research organization. For us, it's only an inspiration of sorts. It's not just a fashion collection which is inspired from celestial bodies or inspired from the space, but actually we are using some elements of authenticity.

If you look at the meteorite watch, which was priced at Rs 1.3 lakh, it was again a limited-edition watch. We used various natural materials. In addition to meteorites, (there were) the green Aventurine fossil which we use in the dial and the Kambaba Jasper, which has its own unique health properties.

We have tried to bring in a lot of authenticity to this whole storytelling about space. So whenever there's an intersection of two trends - space exploration, interest in the space, that is one trend, and the horology is the other one - it creates a huge success. And that is what we're seeing in the Rakesh Sharma stellar collection that is now into its second phase.

The Unity watch is an Automatic, powered by Titan's in-house movement. Could you tell us what drove the idea of building an in-house movement when most brands just buy it from established players and what did it take?

We invest a lot in R&D and consumer research. One of the trends that we caught on early on, particularly in India, was automatics. A few years back, in the field of automatics, when we were just about touching the tip of the iceberg, we were importing a lot of this (movement) and certainly the demand was continuously going up and so our manufacturing facilities, our design, they got together and created this technological innovation, which is our in-house movement, which is an indigenous movement. And as a result of that, it has now become a lever of our growth. Although the fact of the matter is that our in-house capacity itself is not sufficient to cater to the love that the brands are getting from the consumers, so we're continuously struggling with the capacity for the automatics through our in-house movement.

Titan Unity Watch - Stellar Edition price: Rs 34,995

Sales jobs can be hard in any category, but especially for watches where the functionality of the product is different now than say, in the 1980s, '90s or even up to the 2000s. Everybody has a mobile phone now, people wear watches for completely different reasons. You're also competing with wearables, you're actually also making wearables now. How does this all play into the sales approach for you? And where do limited editions fit into that strategy?

There are two questions in what you've asked. One is about how do we balance the different need states of consumers? Because there is the functionality of a smartwatch versus the romanticism of analog watch. Analog watches about who you are, it is a statement about your personality, your styling statement, your status, and all of that. Whereas smart is about what you do, how many steps you've travelled, and so on and so forth. And there's very limited fungibility between the two need states.

Somebody was telling me about an interaction with an individual who was wearing an analog watch in one hand, and smart in the other. When asked about this, he said, you know, this is my jewellery (analogue), and this (smartwatch) is my health indicator, and my watch is actually the smartphone which shows time.

Nobody actually wears a watch anymore just to see the time. So that functionality aspect, which was many years back, when the smartphones had not pervaded everyone's life, has completely changed. Today, people use watches as an expression of their own self, as an expression of their status, their social standing, their mood, they become elements that bring joy in their life. It is about that; make them feel good about themselves. That's what analog watches are (for). And smartwatches are, of course, very health-oriented devices, which tell you about the various features that you would be looking for, whether it's sleep, whether it is steps, whether it is heartbeat, heart rates, SPO2, various other features which are there in that. So, and we deal with both the segments.

We're growing quite robustly in the analog business, and you would have seen the Quarter 2 results, where the analog business actually has grown by 26 percent. And there are various elements that are propelling that growth. Smart has actually seen a slight growth of around 13 percent. I consider that as growth considering that the whole market of smartwatches has declined by more than 40 percent. We have actually tried to not play the commoditization game, which is actually resulting to that crashing of the market where consumer experience has gone for a toss: when you want to wear the watch, it's not working, it's not charged or something like that. We've tried to play a different game, we've tried to play a high-quality game, and last year, yes, we got a little swayed by the dropping ASPs (average selling prices) of the products in smart. But I think we course-corrected, and going forward, we will see a lot of premiumization, a lot of value addition in the smartwatches segment, because that is something which is growing for us.

On the other question; see, limited edition is done only for something which is very exclusive, something which has got a very strong story behind it, which is something that the watch enthusiasts, serious watch collectors would really hanker after, would really love to acquire that story and will keep it for posterity. For example, the meteorite watch, which is made out of meteorite, which is 1.2 billion years old. And it becomes an expression of eternal love for somebody who's gifting it to their loved ones.

Or for that matter, the Titan Caelum Titanium Automatic Multifunction - Stellar Edition (men's watch) with the red dial and the in-house movement that we launched, which was, again, a combination of fashion, material and horology coming together coming together to create a very unique story. Or the Rakesh Sharma Unity watch, which is a very strong story.

Is it fair to say that people are now buying into the story rather than just a watch or a function or complication now?

Absolutely. We are seeing a lot of premiumization happening as a result of many stories being played at the same time in the country today. Of course, there is the macro factor: India being the fastest growing economy, and the rising middle-class and upper-middle-class in all of that.

But it is also a fact that over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of these international brands as a result of the first macro factor. All the European brands, Swiss brands coming into India and investing and creating desire out here. And each of these international brands have their own heritage. They have their own legacy and they're telling those stories out here. And watches have become a very precious item either for your own self or for gifting. And we at Titan have participated very aggressively in this desire creation process. If you go to any of the airports, you'll find hoardings and advertisements of mostly watches or jewellery. So there's a lot of desire creation which is happening that is fuelling the premiumization story of the watches.

We have started investing a lot in creating stories, and story has not just the product in it as the centre, but also the way it is stored. The whole human interaction at the point of sale, desire creation that happens the way it is merchandised in the stores, the way it is packaged and all of this. So this whole experience together is why it is often said that people are no longer buying into products, they are actually buying into the experiences, they are buying into the stories that fit into their scheme of things. It's honestly nothing got to do with the price points. Across different price points, even for our mass market brands, we've seen the moment we have added some elements, some unique features to it, something that we can talk about and knit together as a story, our ability to charge a premium also goes up. And storytelling is becoming so prevalent, primarily because it also allows you to move towards more premiumization, charging a little more value for the story.

Titan sales and marketing chief Rahul Shukla with Wing Commander (Retd) Rakesh Sharma who was the first Indian to go into space. (Images courtesy Titan)

You've actually preempted my next question, which is essentially around how do you position yourself?

In terms of pricing, like you rightly said in the beginning, we have various brands, and within brands, there are various clusters or sub brands, and the centre of gravity for price points sits at different levels.

The whole market is actually divided into three segments, which is your mass, your mid-premium and your premium. Typically, that's how we qualify: anything less than 5k is your mass value segment; entering between Rs 5K and Rs 25K is mid premium and greater than Rs 25,000 is premium. But if you look at our brands, whether it is Titan, within Titan Raga, Edge, Nebula, Zylus, they're all taking their own shapes and forms, which are at the premium end of it.

Titan... traverses across various price points, right from the value segment, where it offers clusters like Charisma and catering to the value-conscious consumer, making it accessible to them, right up to the Rs 1.5 lakh. And, in fact, in Edge, we had launched even more expensive watches some time back.

In the mass segment, where your whole focus is on acquisition of volumes and consumers and buyers, where you will probably have a larger play on channels which operate in that kind of environment, like the multi-brand retail or the marketplace e-commerce, whereas your high-end retail and the high-end clusters of our brands would operate in a premium segment. So it is not about doing this or that, it is about doing both.

You mentioned foreign brands coming to India, but Indian brands are also going abroad and participating in summits and awards. You also spoke about brand stories and contextualizing that for the consumer. Now how do you make that work for international buyers?

So if I were to break your two questions, one is how do we take India to the global stage, and (two is) how do we create these India stories which are relevant and which are very endearing to them.

Your first question was about the participation in the global stage of the Indian companies. I don't know of many Indian companies which actually participate in the international arena. I think Titan was the only Indian brand which was ever selected to be nominated for the GPHG (Le Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève). Its edge, black ceramic, slim squircle, which has a very unique dial, it was actually selected to be amongst the contenders. This is a reflection of our focus on and how much importance we have been giving and how much investments we have been doing in R&D, world-class manufacturing and focusing on innovations and all of that. I don't see any Indian company doing anything like that. I might be wrong. I have not come across such examples.

As far as taking the Indian stories, you're right. Of late, in fact, last couple of years, we have been focusing a lot on (it). We're not only making the watches, but actually creating stories of Indian legacy, of Indian heritage, of Indian achievements, Indian excellence and taking them to the global stage. And while we have a pretty wide presence, widespread presence and very robust market share in the Indian market, we've also started expanding our footprint in the international arena. We have now more than 50 you know, boutiques outside India; 25 of them are in UAE and in Southeast Asia, as well as in the SAARC region as well. So, we have a fairly high growth trajectory that is phasing out in countries outside India as well. And that is a trajectory that we continue to strengthen and grow as we go forward. And that gives us an opportunity to not just create watches for the Indian consumers, but also represent India in the global stage, take India to the global stage of horology and watchmaking.

Does being listed on the Indian bourses place extra pressure on you? And, related to that, internally how do you look at your share price rising from around Rs 1,500 around 2020, when the pandemic hit, to over Rs 3,400 now - even though there has been a dip lately?

Very little idea about the stock market. There are thousands of factors that influence the share prices, beyond just the performance. So I'm actually the wrong person to be asked that question. I think the folks in the stock market will be better placed to answer.

Given the movement, one would think this would be watercooler conversation in your offices...

I think as an organization, we are committed to add, create value for our stakeholders, our consumers, our employees, people who have invested in the business. But at the end of the day, we are driven by what our consumers want. And in fact, right from the beginning, that has been the singular reason why Titan is known as a very strong marketing organization, because it is only and always focused on creating value for the consumers, not just for watches, but across divisions.

What happens to the stock price is honestly not my concern. It will find its way. (Internally,) stories are only about this; inordinate focus on creating excellence in the field of be it retailing, be it the kind of products that we launch, the kind of storytelling that we do, the huge investments in R&D (research and development) and the innovations bringing in new materials and movements and design excellence. We have invested a huge amount in creating a design excellence. We have a design studio of our own. We have invested in creating a very strong movement, which has been one of the levers of growth, the wholly in-house movement that we have.