The Hindu Business Line : Longines expansion hampered by rigid norms

Hyderabad, Aug. 20 Swiss watchmaker Longines said it is keen to open its own outlets in the country, where it sees potential, but is hampered by regulatory restrictions.

“We are constrained by the number of outlets we have in India. The potential is huge. Currently, we have 60 outlets and plan to grow this number to 150.

“The focus all through has been on metropolitan cities and the South is under-penetrated,” said Mr Claude Jaunin, Regional Sales Manager (Asia Pacific), Longines.

Mr Jaunin, who was here to present Longines watches to badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand said this is part of Longines efforts to be associated with sports.

One of the oldest Swiss watchmakers, Longines, part of the 19-member Swatch group, has produced over 37 million pieces of watches so far. The company sees mechanical watches coming back into vogue with more than half of the watches sold last year.

The Indian market mirrors other markets and there is an increasing preference for mechanical watches, which lost ground to quartz watches a couple of decades ago.

“Our range starts from Rs 25,000 and goes up to Rs 1.5 lakh in the Master collection for men.

“The Master collection for women starts from Rs 2.67 lakh. We are planning to introduce new models later this year,” Mr Jaunin said.

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