Indians have always had a fascination for gold, and this preference has not been confined to only jewellery. Many other accessories that adorn gold, including watches, have also caught the people's fancy. Across all price points and in all regions in the country, gold-plated watches have always been the top sellers, and this tradition prompted Titan to unveil, earlier this year, a 'gold and steel' range with slight innovation.According to Ajoy Chawla, business head, Titan, the collection has gone down extremely well with customers, with the range having already contributed 15 per cent of the company's total sales. Titan's net sales grew 21.8 per cent to Rs 348.81 crore for Q2 FY06, from Rs 286.21 crore for Q1 FY06. "The quarter-on-quarter increase in retail sales can largely be attributed to this range (gold and steel) taking off well," Chawla said.There was a time when watch straps were either of plain leather or of plain gold. Although some funky-colour straps were also introduced, these were mainly aimed at the youth. And if you were on the wrong side of 25 and, worse still, working in a corporate setup, you simply had no choice. This is where, retailers felt, chances were always there for these the new Titan gold watches to do well and they have done exactly that so far. Especially so with the exotic idea of putting emphasis on steel. In combination with steel "� rather than plain gold "� they look distinctly different and much more classy.Although Citizen had rolled out its range of two-tone watches almost four years ago, not many people caught up with that initially. However, of late, Citizen's marketing manager Satish Halageri said, the two-tone range became pretty popular contributing almost 10 per cent to its sales of 1.5 lakh watches a year. The company has now made it point to introduce new models in this range every month to keep demand flowing in and growing. Internationally, Timex has a similar range, but it has not been visible in India yet.In anticipation of increased sales around the time of Diwali, Titan not only exerted an advertising push behind its 'gold and steel' brand but also launched the range in the Bandhan collection, which is essentially a 'his and hers' gift set. "Since these watches are slightly dressy, this has been the peak time for a collection like this, with first the festival time and then the wedding season," Chawla said.
