Titan Industries is taking its fight with the Swiss brands straight to the enemy camp. The company will shortly offer 1.15 mm thin movements in the global market under the brand name 'Le Papillon' with the all important 'made-in-Switzerland' label. Movements form the heart of a watch akin to a processor in a computer.

"Titan's Le Papillon movements will qualify for the 'made in Switzerland' label as components which constitute 50 per cent of the cost of the movement will be of Swiss origin. Parts like step motor, quartz crystal, chip and battery will be sourced from Switzerland while the plate, the moving parts, the electronic circuitry will be made by Titan at its Hosur plant. Le Papillon was designed and developed at Titan's research and development (R&D) at its Hosur facility.

The movements will be assembled in Switzerland. Titan is looking for an assembly facility in the Neuchatel area of the country. The delivery of the movements is expected to start in September/October this year. These 1.15mm movements are not made by the watch majors like Seiko, Citizen or Esa. "Only the Swatch group markets it in a limited manner," said Mr Desai. Mainly because the volumes are low for these type of movements as the fashion today favours bulky, complicated watch pieces. Titan, however, believes that there is a large enough niche market for this movement.

"The Swiss-made tag will be very attractive for brands," said Mr Desai. Titan launched this movement at the recently concluded watch and jewellery fair at Basle and met with "an enthusiastic response," he said.