The “Challenge” category in Grand Prix Horlogerie d’Genève – watches under 4,500 CHF – has a surprising entry: Titan Wandering Meteor – from India. With a crystallized titanium case, a meteorite dial a, deep-dome sapphire crystal and a price of CHF 3,999,
The watch features a dial made from 120,000-year-old cratered Muonionalusta meteorite. Meteorite has also been used for the minute ring, which carries Super-Luminova markers to complement the hours marked on the twin discs of the 7ACO, in-house,wandering hour self-winding movement which is intended to evoke the idea of a moon circling a planet.
The crystallised titanium case, meanwhile, is designed to shimmer ‘catching the light as though fragments of distant galaxies have been captured and preserved in the metal…’, according to Titan’s official description.
People in India get very excited about the astronomical world so, two years ago, we built our first wandering hour watch on the theme,” says Mahendra Chauhan, the Titan’s design team leader. “It was based on our in-house movement and featured interesting materials such as bronze and titanium. The price of CHF 2,900 made it quite a steal in terms of look, feel and complexity and, when it sold out, we realised there was potential in pushing the Sfr3,000 barrier to the people who wanted to own an even more high-end Titan. A lot of international collectors approached us and, to celebrate what we did with the Wandering Hour, we re-invented it as the Wandering Meteor,” Mr. Chauhan continued.
A Strong Legacy
If you were raised in Europe or the U.S. there’s a good chance that the first watch you strapped onto your wrist as a youngster was a Timex or a swatch. But if you grew-up in India after 1984, it was almost certainly a Titan.
As with many things made in this magical country where creativity is king, the volume of timepieces produced by Titan and its 15 subsidiary brands is mind-boggling compared with a typical Swiss manufacturer: it currently stands at around 17 million per year.
Most are in the ‘affordable’ sector, with prices starting at as little as US$50 and averaging around the $250 – 300 mark.
But to mark the 40th anniversary of its founding in 2024 the firm decided to expand its remit with the reveal of its first tourbillon model called ‘The 40 years of joy’ – and it proved to be something of a hit, not just on home soil, but with collectors around the world.
Although a mere four were made, the tourbillon attracted sufficient attention to encourage Titan to build on its favourable reception and, during last year’s Watches & Wonders, it revealed an even more remarkable piece called the Nebula Jalsa Tourbillon with a hand-painted, marble dial by top Indian miniaturist Shakir Ali.
With its rose gold case and in-house movement, the 10-piece edition took Titan to a whole new level both in terms of sophistication and, at almost $40,000, pricing – and helped to give the brand the confidence to compete on the world stage at a luxury level.
An Edgy Sub brand
Launched in 2002, Titan’s ‘Edge’ sub brand created what was then the world’s slimmest wrist watch – with a 1.1mm quartz movement and an overall thickness of just 3.5mm. That was followed-up in 2023 with the first mechanical Edge, a hand-wound piece with a 2.2mm movement and an overall thickness of 5.7mm. The development of this collection features an in-house mechanism is one of the thinnest of its type in the world and. In the 50-piece, titanium-cased ‘Ultraslim’ entered for this year’s GPHG, it drives an innovative rotating disc time display – all for a price of CHF 3,000.
“Creating the first Titan tourbillon in 2023 for the 40th anniversary the following year brought a really positive response,” says Mahendra Chauhan. “It showed us that we could take the step into haute horlogerie and gave us a lot of inspiration to push ourselves.”
And part of that push came with the creation of the Stellar collection focusing on astronomy, which ultimately gave rise to the Wandering Meteor.
On September 1 we will know if the two watches will make it to the shortlist of nominees for the GPHG on November 7.
