Watchmaker Titan Company, which is targeting USD 2 billion in sales by FY30, expects its Helios stores—focused on premium and luxury watches, to contribute around 20 per cent of its total revenue, a company official said on Friday.
The company, which is seeing stronger growth in the accessible luxury segment, plans to expand its Helios Luxe outlets offering watches priced above ₹1 lakh to 100 by 2030, up from the current 15 stores, said Rahul Shukla, VP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Watches Division, Titan.
Helios and Helios Luxe are expected to form a significant part of Titan’s growth trajectory as the company pursues a billion-dollar sales target in the next fiscal year.
"Every year, we open close to 30 to 40 Helios stores, and this trajectory will continue. However, we will fast-track our expansion of Helios Luxe, considering a robust growth in the accessible luxury space," informed Shukla.
The Tata group managed entity, which opened Helios Luxe, an exclusive luxury watch store in 2024, will have roughly 15 such stores by the end of the year.
"We will look at adding around 20 to 25 stores every year. So by financial year 2030, we are looking at 100 Helios Luxe stores," he added.
This growth of Helios Luxe will be a mix of CoCo (company-owned and company-operated) at some marque locations and a franchise-based growth model, FoFo (franchise-owned and franchise-operated).
Moreover, as part of its expansion strategy, even for our luxury Helios Luxe format, " We are looking at tier II & III towns. We are opening stores in cities such as Varanasi, Kolhapur, and Allahabad." The company expects "30 per cent of our stores will be in the tier II & III towns" in the coming years.
Titan, a joint venture between Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu government, has an ambition of having a USD 2 billion sales target by the financial year 2030.
In this, "Helios and Helios Luxe will play a significant part. Currently, it contributes to around 10 per cent of our business. We are looking at increasing its contribution to our business to around 20 per cent by financial year 2030," said Shukla.
The premium segment continues to benefit from strong tailwinds including economic growth, rapid urbanisation and the expansion of the middle class. Over the past three to four years, the accessible luxury category has grown at a much faster pace, both internally and relative to the fashion segment.
"In Helios, the accessible luxury segment, which has watches priced between Rs one lakh and Rs 5 lakh, is growing at 46 per cent, which is double the rate of the watch category in that segment," he said. This also led us to believe that Titan need to fast-track the expansion of Helios Luxe.
Now, " We currently estimate it to be around Rs 4,500 crore, growing at 23 per cent, and in that, if we can grow at double the category itself, we will be able to take a much larger share over a period of time.
Titan has Helios and Helios Luxe retail formats to satisfy the growing appetite for luxury watches in India. Helios deals with the premium segment, priced from Rs 25,000 to Rs one lakh, and Helios Luxe deals with luxury products ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Titan currently has around seven exclusive brands with it. "We are looking at adding another four to five more exclusive brands to our luxury portfolio," he said.
Shukla expects the country's Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the EU, UK and other countries will "also ease the pressure on the pricing", and several global brands will make investments in the country.
Duties on Swiss watches have already come down from about 22 per cent to 15 per cent under the India-four-European nation bloc EFTA, which includes Switzerland, which came into force on October 1, 2025. The India-EU FTA is expected to bring further reductions.
"Watches have become an expression of who you are. It's now an expression of your mood, your style statement, personality, and your milestone. Watches have become much bigger than that," he said.
Titan has created Helios Luxe as a platform which brings and curates a select set of international brands that have a rich story to tell.
Helios Luxe, which introduced 5 exclusive and 7 other international brands to India over the past 18 months, has now brought German watchmaker Alexander Shorokhoff.
"Luxury selling is all about the aesthetics, it is about horology, but it is also about deep design stories, and we are always on the lookout for brands which have such stories to tell," said Shukla.