Seiko luxury boutiques to adorn tier- I cities in India

 Having kept time for 135 years now, Japanese luxury watch brand Seiko, with its newly appointed India head Niladri Mazumdar, has charted out a distinguished plan for its India journey.

“So far, Seiko has built itself a fine family of patrons with its boutiques in Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata, among others. Currently, Seiko stands at six boutiques across India and we plan to take it up to 10 or even 12 by 2018. We will expand across tier-I cities with the exclusive boutique format,” said Niladri Mazumdar, President of Seiko Watch India. 
  
With a six-year history in India, the brand, which has carved a niche for itself as a serious watchmaker alongside Rado and Tissot, claims a position in the top five watch brands in the world, and is ready to rise through the ranks here as well.

As the company looks at a growth of 20% in the next few years, Mazumdar believes that a large share of the opportunity lies in tier-II and tier-III cities. “Non-metro cities in India have a lot spending capacity, but they do not have the luxury of exposure to good brands. Brand display is not at par with the way it is in cities. The opportunity to grow here is easily higher, at about 30%,” he said, adding, “Here, we plan to set up image corners to display the brand and improve brand awareness.”

Appreciating specific needs of the discerning Indian consumer, the company has introduced its collection Lord, specially for India. “The Indian consumer is different in that a watch has to suit multiple occasions and outfits. Moreover, this has to accomplished with a personal collection of just one or two watches. The Lord collection, which is launched every year does just that. About 25% of Seiko sales in India is generated by the Lord collection.”

However, it is the luxury watches segment, including Grand Seiko and Astron that will seek to be the game changer for Seiko. Grand Seiko is the company’s flagship luxury collection touted to comprise the “best watch in the world”, while Astron is a specialised traveller’s watch collection that boasts of solar GPS mechanism.

“The segment grew by 70% in value, last year. We are looking at average 50% year-on-year growth in this segment. In the years to come, as we expand brand footprint, Grand Seiko will be the highlight,” he said. “By 2018, we expect sales from this segment to contribute to at least 15% of the overall sales, up from the current 3-4%,” he added.