India’s Swiss Watch Challengers

On April 10, the Prime Minister was spotted wearing a wristwatch adorned with a tiger motif that immediately drew the attention of watch enthusiasts in India — not for its price tag or a global luxury label, but for its origin. The timepiece came from Jaipur Watch Company, an Indian horology brand known for crafting mechanical watches inspired by the country’s heritage.

For generations, aspirational watch enthusiasts in India chased Swiss names such as Longines, Tudor, Hublot, Rolex, Omega, and Tag Heuer for wrist status. At the same time, legacy domestic makers like Titan served the mass market. That left a glaring middle: style-conscious buyers who wanted premium design, mechanical craftsmanship, and storytelling, but without the hefty price tags or the “imported is better” baggage.

Now a new wave of homegrown D2C watchmakers is snapping that gap shut, and the ecosystem comprising investors, unicorn founders, celebrities, corporates, and global brands is taking notice.

In December 2025, Rotoris — founded by Bella Vita Luxury’s Aakash Anand — raised $3 Mn (₹27 Cr) from Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, Venture Catalysts and 100Unicorns. More than 30 founders, including Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh and Noise’s Gaurav Khatri, also backed the endeavour to build premium mechanical watches with ‘Swiss-level’ standards. Actor Vivek Oberoi also invested and became a brand partner for Rotoris.

In May 2024, Jaipur Watch Company raised ₹2.4 Cr in an angel funding round and counts Tushar Kapoor, Director, Kapsons, Dexter Angels and Marwari Catalysts as its investors. The brand also partnered with MG Select India (JSW MG Motor India’s luxury lifestyle arm) to blend automotive design with horological craftsmanship and signed cricketers Dhruv Jurel and Yuzvendra Chahal as brand ambassadors.

Even Argos Watches, a 2022-founded mechanical watch brand, raised ₹6.5 Cr in angel funding at a ₹45 Cr valuation after generating ₹25.64 Cr revenue in FY25.

Not every new brand that is trying to replicate Swiss aesthetics is using investors’ funds to grow. A key example is Bangalore Watch Company. Bootstrapped so far, the 2018-founded brand sells in 30+ countries. It uses components from Citizen, a Japanese watch brand, and debuted at Dubai Watch Week 2025. 

Today, they give their global counterparts a tough fight by offering sapphire glass, ceramic bezels, and mechanical movements at ₹15,000-₹50,000, while Swatch Group and Tag Heuer start at ₹50,000 and go up to several lakhs of rupees depending on the craftsmanship, clockwork, finishes and materials. Pretty much every large watchmaker relies on multi-tier distribution.

The Practice Run Before The Rolex

Mini luxury is not replacing aspirational brands like Rolex. If anything, it is becoming the step before it. A 28-year-old buying a timepiece from Bangalore Watch Company for ₹1.5 Lakh would also want to own a Rolex someday. 

“That customer is wearing the training wheels before he gets to that Rolex,” said Arjun Vaidya, the founder of V3 Ventures, whose family has been in the watch business for over two decades. Early in his career, Vaidya interned at Hublot, a Swiss luxury watchmaker founded in 1980. He has seen this shift up close.

India’s luxury products market, currently valued at $10-12 Bn, is growing fast, but the real opportunity is not at the very top. According to an industry expert, the ultra-luxury watch market — brands like Rolex, Tudor, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet — is still relatively small in India at around $600 Mn and is expected to grow slowly to nearly $685 Mn by 2035.

The bigger opportunity lies in the ₹25,000 to ₹2 Lakh segment of “first serious watches”. India is already the fastest-growing market for Swiss watches globally, with exports to the country rising over 25% YoY. At the same time, the premium and luxury segment within India’s broader $4-5 Bn watch market is growing at 10–14% annually.

The demand is also spreading beyond metros. According to Alvarez & Marsal India managing director Rishav Jain, more than 60% of luxury purchases on online luxury platforms now come from non-metro cities, showing that aspiration is no longer limited to urban centres. 

“The market is deep. The challenge is whether supply can keep up with this demand,” Jain said.

Still, turning a Rolex aspirant into a customer — even for a few years — is not easy. To achieve this, D2C watch brands will need to achieve three things — a story global luxury brands cannot tell, credible products with quality components and finishing, and an offline retail experience.

Building India’s Next Luxury Watch Brand 

For D2C luxury brands, simply making a good-looking product is no longer enough. Founders are increasingly realising that customers spending ₹50,000 or more are buying into a story as much as the product itself. In watches, many Indian brands are leaning into Indian heritage, design language, and limited-edition drops to create that sense of exclusivity.

But building a premium watch brand comes with challenges many founders underestimate.

The first is repeat purchases. Unlike skincare or fashion, watches are not bought every few months. For most buyers, a watch is a purchase they make once every five to seven years. That means brands either need to recover customer acquisition costs from a single purchase or create a collector culture through limited editions, numbered pieces, and special drops. Rotoris’s model of limiting production to 2,100 numbered watches is one example.

The second challenge is trust. Many Indian buyers still hesitate before spending more on a relatively new brand. Some even prefer buying a pre-owned Swiss watch instead.

Then comes what Vaidya calls the ‘graduation problem’. A customer may start with an Indian luxury watch brand, but what happens when they can finally afford a Rolex? Do they stay loyal and buy another watch from the same Indian brand, or move entirely to Swiss luxury? Most brands, he believes, lose their best customers at this stage.

This, however, does not mean that there is no room for new winners in this space. “There is, but this is not a category where you raise ₹50 Cr and scale overnight. You have to build patiently and earn every customer,” another D2C investor said. 

The ecosystem around premium watches in India is maturing. Mini luxury is no longer a tiny niche. It is becoming the space where Indian craftsmanship, modern branding, investor interest, and global aspirations are coming together.

In a country where “Swiss made” once defined aspiration, a new generation of Indian watch brands is trying to prove that luxury can also be purely Indian. The real test, however, is not selling the first watch but earning a permanent place in a collector’s watch box long after the Rolex arrives.  

SPOTLIGHT: How Great Outdoors India Is Building A Trekking Arsenal

• Founded in 2019, Great Outdoors provide quality trekking equipment from India. It offers a wide range of trekking and adventure gear, including tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, outdoor apparel, climbing gear, camping accessories and expedition equipment.
• The brand manufactures its own products and also resells trekking essentials from other brands on its own website. It distributes several international and Indian trekking and camping equipment 
• Following an omnichannel approach, Great Outdoor India sells its products via own website, retail store, as well as ecommerce channels like Amazon.

Ecommerce Buzz

Flipkart To Defer IPO: Walmart is reportedly pushing the ecommerce giant to prioritise profitability over expansion. The company has deferred its IPO plans and paused a potential $2 Bn pre-IPO raise, even as it doubles down on quick commerce, food delivery and ticketing bets amid rising competition and leadership churn.

Legends Of Toys Fundraise: The D2C toymaker has raised ₹21 Cr in a pre-Series A round led by Singularity Early Opportunities Fund. The startup will use the capital to scale manufacturing, expand globally, and deepen its RC and ‘Kidult’ collector-focused play universe.

Zoho’s ONDC Bet: The SaaS major has invested ₹70 Cr in ONDC to support India’s digital commerce infrastructure and boost ecommerce adoption among MSMEs. The move comes as ONDC looks to expand its open-network model despite slowing retail transaction growth. 

New Rules Of India’s D2C Economy: The D2C ecosystem is entering its ‘D2C 3.0’ phase, where success is increasingly driven by repeat purchases, customer retention, operational efficiency, quick commerce readiness and strong brand loyalty rather than just online reach or aggressive GMV growth.

The Deep Dive

The Operators Question 

In a market where watch enthusiasts are deeply inclined towards global luxury watch brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Omega, what premium parameters should emerging Indian watch brands in the ‘accessible luxury’ segment focus on to build credibility and cultivate a loyal customer base?

Speaking with Inc42, Jaipur Watch Company CEO and founder Gaurav Mehta said that in a market dominated by luxury players, Indian watch brands in the accessible luxury segment cannot compete on pricing. 

Mehta added that brands must compete on originality, storytelling, craftsmanship, and emotional connection. Sharing his observations on Jaipur Watch Company’s customers, Mehta highlighted a few strategies that Indian watch brands can adopt to differentiate themselves. 

The Storytelling Wave: While Global brands are built on decades and centuries of heritage, Indian brands can stand out by building their own design language. Mehta said the company has witnessed a clear shift in consumer mindset over the past few years, with buyers increasingly looking beyond logos and imported status symbols and focusing on products that offer meaning, individuality and authenticity. 

The Indian Heritage Edge: Homegrown watch brands have a unique advantage due to artistic heritage. With coin artistry, miniature painting, enamel work, Pichhwai art, hand engraving, or textile-inspired detailing, we need to create products that no global luxury house can authentically replicate. 

Community Building: Limited editions, direct engagement with customers and a strong founder-led narrative help transform customers into long-term patrons. In the accessible luxury space, loyalty is built not through mass production, but through emotional ownership.

And that’s a wrap on this edition of The Checkout by Inc42. We’ll be back next week with a deep dive into the latest trends shaping the ecommerce landscape. 

Thanks,

Meha Agarwal & Palak Sharma

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