Omega Watches, a luxury watch brand owned by Switzerland-based Swatch Group that currently has five exclusive retail stores in the country, will be opening three more stores — in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi by 2010-end, brand manager PH Narayanan told DNA.
The watch brand is continuing to grow and is not affected by the slowdown in the consumer spends. “Omega is doing well in India and we are seeing growth wherever we are present. The luxury watch market is growing at about 25-30% annually and we are doing better than that,” Narayanan said.
Currently, Delhi is the biggest market for Omega in India, contributing 35% of overall sales. Mumbai contributes 26%.
“Even in a downturn, players in the luxury segment will not be affected. Men who have money can flaunt it by two means — wearing expensive watches and expensive pens. Women have way too many accessories to show off. So the men typically don’t mind spending a lot of money on their watches,” Narayanan added.
Amongst the four collections that Omega has in India — Constellation, Seamaster, Speedmaster and De Ville, the various combinations of gold, diamonds and steel offered in the Constellation collection are sold the most, while the Seamaster collection — targeted towards water-sports players and the Speedmaster collection — with chronograph function and meant for athletes are slowly catching up, Narayanan said.
Omega is launching a special edition of the Speedmaster watch this year to mark the 40th anniversary collaboration with Nasa. “Omega is the only brand that has so far been considered by Nasa as an apt watch for the space travel. There are many players who have tried to enter the same domain but have not succeeded so far,” Narayanan said.
The company recently launched Solar Impulse brand watch as part of its collaboration with Nasa and has sold all the pieces that were brought to India, Narayanan said.
