Can’t buy gold, get gold plated watches!

February 06, 2009

Commodity Online
MUMBAI: If you don’t have enough money to buy gold jewellery, what will you do? In normal circumstances, you will go for a substitute which will give the same impact of gold.

This mentality of Indians has helped a leading watch maker in a big way at a time when gold prices crossed Rs 14,000 for 10 gms.

In a new revelation to Indian customers’ mind, India’s leading watch maker Titan has disclosed that the soaring gold prices have helped the company sell more gold plated watches in the country.

In fact, many people, who can’t afford gold now, opted for gold platted wrist watches as a substitute. People have even started giving Titan gold platted watches as gifts at weddings and other functions instead of gold.

Titan’s gold plated watch segment, which contributes to about 65 per cent of the company’s overall sales in watches, has reported a rise 15 per cent in sales in the country.

Compared to gold jewellery, gold plated watches provide wide range of choice to buyers in limited budget. Titan offers more choice to buyers in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,000 which might not be the case with gold jewellery.

Titan produces about 10 million watches every year. The watch division sales grew by 9.6% from Rs 609.90 crore last year to Rs 668.45 crore this year.

From last one year gold price is seen in the levels of Rs 12000-14000 per 10 gm. Now, gold average is about Rs 13800. With marriage season on, people are diverting their choice from jewellery to gold plated watches as gold prices are not affordable for middle class people.

However, recessions has hit the company’s sale also. The watch division has seen lesser walk-in’s in malls and large format stores in big cities resulting in lower growth.

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