Titan Open to Buying Smaller Watch Brands, Cites Festive Demand

Titan Company says it is open to acquiring or investing in smaller, emerging watch brands to expand its premium and luxury portfolio, even as it flags a robust festive season driven by strong demand, a senior executive told PTI.

Titan Signals Openness to Watch Acquisitions

Titan Company, the Tata group's watchmaking and jewellery major, has said it remains open to buying stakes in or fully acquiring smaller, emerging watch brands as part of its broader growth strategy. Ranjani Krishnaswamy, Titan's Chief Marketing Officer, told Press Trust of India that the company evaluates opportunities that could complement its long term growth ambitions and deepen its presence across market segments.

Krishnaswamy said the idea of inorganic growth in the watch business has been discussed internally at Titan for some time, and that the company would move on an acquisition when the right partner and moment came along. She pointed to Titan's earlier acquisitions in its jewellery business, including its investment in CaratLane, as a template the company could apply to watches as well.

A Playbook Borrowed From Jewellery

Titan's jewellery arm has grown partly through acquisitions and strategic investments over the years, most notably its stake building in online jewellery retailer CaratLane, alongside other investments made outside India. Krishnaswamy suggested any similar move in watches would need to be complementary to Titan's overall growth journey rather than opportunistic, meaning a deal would have to fit the company's existing strategy instead of being pursued purely because a target became available.

Titan already runs Helios, a multi brand retail chain that stocks international labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Roamer, giving the company an existing platform to test and distribute any new brand it might bring in. That retail infrastructure could shorten the time needed to integrate a newly acquired label compared with building distribution from scratch.

Premiumisation Is the Underlying Trend

Behind the acquisition talk lies a broader shift in Titan's watch business toward higher value products. Krishnaswamy said the company is seeing strong growth in the premium and luxury segments of its watch portfolio, even as demand in the lowest price bands, watches priced below Rs 1,000, remains comparatively sluggish. That divergence suggests Indian consumers in Titan's core watch buying base are increasingly willing to spend more per purchase, a trend the company appears keen to capture by adding more premium and luxury labels to its stable.

Titan has already built a presence in the luxury segment through its in house Nebula collections and through licensing and distribution arrangements with global watch brands over the years. Expanding further through acquisition, rather than only through organic brand building, would let the company add design capability and established brand recognition more quickly than developing new labels internally.

Also Read: FPIs Pull Rs 20,974 Crore From Equities in September So Far

Festive Season Demand Outlook

Alongside the acquisition comments, Krishnaswamy said Titan expects a robust festive season this year, supported by healthy consumer demand and an early wedding season that coincides with a delayed Diwali. She said the company is seeing a strong start to the season and acknowledged it is working hard to ensure it has enough capacity to service demand.

Why This Matters for Investors

Any statement about being open to acquisitions is not the same as an announced deal, and Titan has not named a specific target or timeline. Still, the comments give investors a clearer sense of where the company sees its next phase of growth in watches: premiumisation supported by potential inorganic expansion, mirroring the strategy that has worked in its jewellery business.

Titan's approach of pairing organic brand building with selective acquisitions, when the right opportunity and partner emerge, gives the company optionality without committing capital until a specific deal is identified. Investors tracking Titan's watch segment should watch for concrete announcements on brand acquisitions or investments in the coming quarters, as well as festive season sales updates.

The watch business remains a smaller contributor to Titan's overall revenue compared with jewellery, but it is the segment where the company has most explicitly signalled ambitions to build a stronger domestic and international identity. Krishnaswamy's remarks framed that ambition in terms of competing with established Swiss and Japanese watchmaking traditions, positioning Titan's own push as an attempt to establish a distinct Indian voice in premium and luxury watchmaking over time.