Titan: Building a Brand

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Background Note Contd...

The dream became a reality in 1961, when the government owned Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT), entered into a tie up with Citizen of Japan, to set up the first watch factory. Citizen also trained select Indian people from HMT at its watch manufacturing facility in Japan.

The first watch model manufactured by HMT- the Janata model- was gifted to the senior most employee of the company by Nehru. In the next ten years, HMT's production increased to 15,000 - 20,000 mechanical watches every month. The early 1980s saw a technological revolution, with the invention of the integrated chip in the US. Digitals were in demand and LED (Light Emitting Diode)2 watches gained in popularity. Japanese companies took over the manufacture of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)3 for digital watches. There was a discernible shift in focus from mechanical to quartz watches in the international market. The Swiss watch industry declined because of its attachment to the mechanical watches. HMT made the same mistake in India.

Titan's Entry

Titan came into existence in July 1984, as a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). When Titan entered the market, the industry consisted of the organized segment dominated by HMT, the unorganized segment consisting of small, local players and the grey market. HMT, which was entirely focused on functional needs, manufactured only mechanical watches. The small time players lacked the nation wide sales and support network which HMT had...

Excerpts >>

2] LEDs are tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don't have a filament that will burn out, and they don't get especially hot. They do dozens of different jobs and are found in all kinds of devices. Among other things, they form the numbers on digital clocks, transmit information from remote controls, light up watches and tell when the appliances are turned on.
3] LCD (liquid crystal display) is used widely in laptop computers, digital clocks and watches, microwave ovens, CD players and many other electronic devices. LCDs are common because they offer some real advantages over other display technologies. They are thinner and lighter and draw much less power than cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Liquid crystals have been used to create a new kind of shutter and grids of these tiny shutters open and close to make patterns that represent numbers, words or images.

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