Manuel Emch, President, Montres Jaquet Droz SA

Manuel Emch, president, Montres Jaquet Droz, has statistics that convey the rationale of his current trip to India. According to a report by the Swiss watchmaking association, the Indian market, among 25 fast-growing markets globally, has recorded an impressive 80% growth in the past two years in Swiss watch exports. It is estimated to have moved from 16.5 million of CHF (Swiss franc) in 2006 to 29.6 million of CHF in 2008.

Equally amazing indicators are India?s high per capita income in the metros ? the real market of Jaquet Droz ? purchase power parity of its youth and the swelling number of millionaires and billionaires. ?Today, of the 50 markets we are present in, India is in the top three in terms of growth and emphasis.?It is a market that is growing slowly, but definitely,? confirms the Swiss CEO.

From La Chaux-de-fonds, Switzerland, Emch is on hissecond trip to India. The objective is to position Jaquet Droz. Theluxury Swiss watch brand, taken up by the Swatch Group few years ago, Jaquet Droz is one of the oldest watch brands in the world with alegacy of 270 years of mechanical watch-making expertise. The brand, with timepieces starting from Rs 4,00,000, is known for its uniqueness of creating limited editions (with almost 80% of its models available in limited numbers).

For Emch, the week in India ? planned across the metropolitan cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata ? is the company?s second baby step towards checking out the new market. The agenda is also to sell Machine a Ecrire le Temps, the watch from the Montres Jaquet Droz SA, and forge a link between the 18th and 21st centuries and countries as different as Switzerland and India says the 36-year-old brand head.

As dramatic as it may sound, Emch suggests that his latest offeringhas been made from his sweat, tears and blood. No exaggeration,assures the watchmaker and seller at the company. Jaquet Droz is a place where Emch?s two passions ? business and art ? blend. Starting his professional life at 15 with a part-time job at an art gallery,

Emch is a businessman of an atypical mould. What else, for him, his customers also need to be like him.

?Not necessarily businessmen or lords, who can shell out money to buy any brand anytime, my customer has to be someone who can appreciate and recognise our watch?s craftsmanship and elegance the way we do,? he points out.

Unlike its other sibling watch brands in the Swatch family, selling through celebrated brand ambassadors is not the way

Jaquet Droze works. For the brand, its customer is its sole ambassador.

?And that is the reason India seems like a challenge to us. We want to know the varying customers of the land of diversity, and make them our envoys,? says Emch. He is trying to figure out how customers in the cities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi differ from each other.

What Emch and its team are looking at is the emotional connect. So, a passionate tennis player or a classical singer would do better over a Mallaya or Ambani. Rest of its challenges ? taxes, growing thrust on quality and training of manpower ? can be tackled later, promises Emch.