Titan-owned watch retailing company Helios on Friday (September 13, 2024) introduced and added Italian watch maker, U-Boat, to its portfolio ahead of the upcoming festive season to sell its premium analogue watches in India.

U-Boat will start with 41 different premium analogues watches which range between ₹1.22 lakh to ₹6 lakh.

These watches will be available at 11 marquee Helios stores in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata. They can be purchased via Helios website as well.

After sales requirements of the U-Boat watches will be taken care by Helios.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

With U-Boat in the portfolio, Helios eyes a 45% revenue growth this festive season in India, said Rahul Shukla, VP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Watches and Wearables, Titan Company.

He added that premium watches sales are coming mainly from metros, Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.

Rahul said that India’s analogue watch market is moving towards premiumisation. However, he points that digital smartwatches like Apple Watch, Pixel Watch or Garmin have a different set of buyers.

Italo Fontana, Founder and Owner, U-Boat said that India is a key market for growth apart from U.S., Middle East and its home turf, Italy.

The U-Boat watches have crown on the left side of the dial from the usual right which we commonly see in other brand’s watches. To which, Italo responded, “we do things differently.”

U-Boat watches | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan

U-Boat watches typically use materials such as carbon fibre, titanium T5, sterling silver, and bronze. It uses crystal sapphire red glass with a matte effect and patented systems including the safe hook locking crown and crown release button.

Based in Tuscany, Italy, U-Boat has been making watches since 20 years, designed by Italo Fontana himself.