Titan Company bought a Swiss watch brand in 2011-12, built a company around it, and spent twelve years trying to make it work. Then it stopped. The company holding the Favre Leuba trademarks was renamed, emptied and liquidated, and Titan disclosed it in one sentence in a quarterly filing. The full receipt is public, on Titan’s own investor site, and almost nothing written about the brand in India reflects it.
Titan bought the Favre Leuba trademarks in 2011-12 and put about CHF 42.1 million of capital into the Swiss company that held them — roughly ₹500 crore at today’s rate. That company sold about CHF 5.56 million of watches in eight years and was liquidated during the year to 31 March 2024. The brand trades again under new Swiss owners, with no Indian seller and no Indian service point. Checked 31 August 2026.
Snapshot
- Founded
- 1737 in Le Locle, on the brand’s own account
- What Titan bought
- The trademarks, in 2011-12 — not a factory or a workforce
- Titan’s exit
- Holding company liquidated in the year to 31 March 2024
- Capital Titan put in
- CHF 42,143,377 by 31 March 2023
- Watch sales, eight years
- About CHF 5.56 million worldwide
- Accumulated losses
- CHF 36,506,028 at 31 March 2023
- Staff, at any point
- Never more than ten
- Owner today
- Silvercity Brands of Grenchen, per WatchPro
- Current prices
- CHF 2,300 to CHF 4,400 core; CHF 24,800 for the tourbillon
- Sold in India today
- No — no retailer, no service centre, no rupee price
- Prices checked
- 31 August 2026
How it started
The brand dates itself to 1737 in Le Locle and names Abraham Favre, later called the town’s master watchmaker, as its founder. Auguste Leuba of Buttes, in the Val-de-Travers, joined the family later and gave the name its second half.
That date is the brand’s own claim, but Titan repeated it in audited annual reports, calling Favre Leuba “the second oldest watch brand in the world” and marking the 280th anniversary at Baselworld in March 2017. Two unconnected owners and a listed Indian company assert the same year. Nobody outside the brand has been shown to have examined the Le Locle record, and “second oldest” is a marketing ranking rather than a checked fact.
What happened between the brand’s mid-century peak and 2011 is the largest gap on this page, and better admitted than filled. No record we could reach names who owned Favre Leuba before Titan, when it stopped trading, or how the trademarks came to be for sale.
- Le Locle, from 1737Abraham Favre; Auguste Leuba joins later, on the brand’s own telling
- Favre Leuba AG, ZugIncorporated 13 January 2012 by Titan, to hold the trademarks
- TCL Watches Switzerland AGThe same company, renamed, then liquidated by 31 March 2024
- Silvercity Brands, GrenchenBought the name in 2023; relaunched at Geneva Watch Days, August 2024
Titan did not buy a watch company. It bought trademarks and incorporated a new Swiss vehicle to hold them, which is why that entity had zero employees as late as March 2015.
What they actually make
Under Titan the range was small and diver-led. The annual reports name the Raider Harpoon, a single-handed diver’s watch; the Raider Bivouac 9000, shown at Baselworld in March 2017 and winner of the Watchstars New Star award for best new watch in 2018; the Bathy 120 MemoDepth; and smaller cases for Sea King and Deep Blue.
The Bivouac and the Bathy are real watches, properly documented — as Titan-era revivals. The originals behind them carry dates that circulate freely and that no record we could reach supports, the one exception being a Deep Blue of 1964.
No Titan filing names a calibre, a movement supplier or an assembly site. That absence is informative: a company that never employed more than ten people was not making movements, so they were bought in.
| Year to 31 March | Revenue (CHF) | Loss for the year (CHF) |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1,268,388 | 4,307,467 |
| 2018 | 920,210 | 7,557,922 |
| 2019 | 1,103,622 | 7,306,424 |
| 2020 | 869,396 | 7,192,398 |
| 2021 | 1,044,912 | 4,702,207 |
| 2022 | 232,286 | 1,247,537 |
| 2023 | 124,516 | 716,924 |
Favre Leuba AG standalone accounts, filed by Titan Company on its investor site.
FY2017 was the brand’s best year under Titan, at CHF 1.27 million worldwide. FY2016, the launch year, produced revenue of CHF 577.20 — five hundred and seventy-seven francs. In FY2020, advertising ran to CHF 4.63 million against CHF 0.87 million of sales. These figures reconcile year to year; they are not estimates.
The most expensive watch on this page is not a watch. It is Titan’s Swiss adventure, and the receipt is public.
The brand today is a different business with the same name. Silvercity Brands relaunched it in August 2024 around Chief, Sea Sky and Deep Blue, on bought-in Swiss movements — La Joux-Perret G100 automatics in the dive watches, column-wheel chronographs from the same supplier, and an FL T01 tourbillon calibre based on the Chronode C502 by Jean-François Mojon. First-year output was targeted at around 4,000 watches, and the Deep Blue line is now sold as Deep Raider. Chief is not a Titan-era collection, whatever you read; it appears only in the post-2024 catalogue.
What Favre Leuba costs in India
Nothing, because nobody sells it here. The brand’s site prices in Swiss francs, names no Indian retailer and no Indian address, and does not mention India. Titan never disclosed a rupee price either, and no separate Indian entity ever filed revenue for the brand — Titan sold it here through its own premium watch retail.
- Swiss shelf price, Chief Date
- CHF 2,300
- The same watch in rupees, at ₹119.51 to the franc
- ₹2,74,900
- Indian MRP
- None — no authorised seller
- Checked on
- 31 August 2026
That blank row is the finding. Across Swiss brands with an Indian importer, the shelf price here lands within a couple of points of the Swiss price and often below the American one. Import duty is levied on the landed transfer value, not on retail, so a headline duty rate adds far less than that rate to what you pay — and the importer prices to global parity anyway. The line that Indian duty makes Swiss watches expensive is simply wrong.
Favre Leuba breaks that pattern by not being in it. Parity pricing needs an authorised importer, and this brand has none. The core range runs CHF 2,300 to CHF 4,400 — about ₹2,74,900 to ₹5.26 lakh at the rate above — with a 25-piece tourbillon at CHF 24,800, roughly ₹29.6 lakh. Getting one here means importing it yourself, at whatever the customs counter charges.
The Titan-era Indian volume is easier to bound than to price. FY2017 revenue of CHF 1,268,388 covered Japan, India, the Middle East, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Switzerland combined. India’s share is undisclosed, but on any plausible split the brand sold in the hundreds of watches a year here at most.
Who Favre Leuba is actually for
For a Swiss buyer the case is sound: a Swiss-made watch on a good bought-in movement at CHF 2,200 to CHF 4,400, from a brand making no pretence of building its own calibres. For an Indian buyer it is much narrower. You cannot walk into a shop and buy one, the brand will not service one here, and you are paying an import price for a name no Indian retailer stands behind. If you want a mechanical watch with a service network attached, the brands that actually operate here answer better, and it is worth understanding what a mechanical movement commits you to before you spend at all.
There is a second reading, and it is the interesting one. Titan is among the largest watch companies in the world by volume, and its own brands work — Fastrack and Sonata are built on Indian manufacturing, Indian distribution and Indian price points. Xylys, Titan’s own premium Swiss-movement brand, was created rather than bought and is still alive. Favre Leuba was the bought heritage, and it is the one that is gone.
Reputation and controversies
The finding here is about disclosure rather than watches. Titan never announced that it had exited Favre Leuba. It recorded the liquidation of the emptied holding company in a one-line note in its audited results for the year to 31 March 2024, approved by the board on 3 May 2024. The brand does not appear in the published subsidiary list after that. No announcement, no press release, and no stated consideration, gain or loss anywhere.
The accounts say more. The FY2018 statements record a six-year business plan running through 2023-24; the FY2020 statements say survival depended on shareholder support and put that support at CHF 21 million. The plan ran its full course, and 2023-24 is exactly the year Titan wound the company up.
One balance-sheet movement is worth reading. Between 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023, long-term liabilities fell by CHF 4.5 million while capital rose by CHF 4.8 million — a loan converted into equity, which is the tidying-up you do before closing a company.
Three things are widely repeated and wrong. Titan does not own Favre Leuba. Titan did not sell it in 2020 — the accounts show the brand still wholly owned on 31 March 2023, with a further CHF 4.8 million going in that year; what stopped in 2020 was the investment. And Titan did not acquire a Swiss watch company in 2011.
Buying it in India
If you own a Titan-era Favre Leuba, or are offered one second-hand, servicing is the whole question. Titan liquidated the company that owned the brand, so no Titan entity is responsible for it. The manufacturer’s warranty has nobody standing behind it, and Titan’s Indian warranty was non-transferable in any case. The current owner publishes no service-centre list, no warranty length and no country list.
That is not a reason to panic. A bought-in Swiss automatic is serviceable by any competent independent watchmaker, and there are good ones in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. It is a reason not to pay a heritage premium for one.
The new owner has published nothing on whether it will service Titan-era watches. That is unknown rather than a refusal — but until the brand says otherwise, price the watch assuming no brand support in India.
Assume there is no warranty
The warrantor was liquidated by 31 March 2024. A card in the box is a document, not a service entitlement.
Have the movement identified first
Titan never published a calibre. A watchmaker reads it off the movement in minutes, and that tells you what a service costs.
Ask for the purchase trail
The brand sold here roughly between 2016 and 2021. A bill, box and papers from that window are the only provenance going.
On a private import, mind the ₹75,000 allowance
Personal baggage is duty-free only to ₹75,000; above that, declare and pay. An international warranty card buys nothing here, because no Indian brand presence exists to honour it.
Counterfeiting is not the risk it is with the big Swiss names, and Favre Leuba publishes no authentication tells to check. A brand peaking at CHF 1.27 million of worldwide sales is not worth faking at scale. The realistic risk is the opposite: a genuine watch, unsupported, sold at a heritage price to someone who has read that Titan owns the brand.
Common questions
Does Titan still own Favre Leuba?
No. Titan’s audited results for the year to 31 March 2024, dated 3 May 2024, record that the subsidiary — by then renamed TCL Watches Switzerland AG — was liquidated during the year. No Swiss entity appears in Titan’s subsidiary lists from FY2024 onwards.
How much did Titan lose on Favre Leuba?
Its accounts show accumulated losses of CHF 36,506,028 at 31 March 2023, against CHF 42,143,377 of capital put in. Watch sales across eight trading years came to about CHF 5.56 million.
Who owns Favre Leuba now?
The trade title WatchPro reports that Silvercity Brands of Grenchen bought it in 2023 and relaunched it at Geneva Watch Days in August 2024, with Patrik Hoffmann as chairman and acting chief executive. There is no connection to Titan or India.
Can I get a Favre Leuba serviced in India?
Not through the brand — there is no Indian service centre or representative. An independent watchmaker can service it once the movement is identified, since the calibres were bought-in Swiss ones.
Is Favre Leuba really from 1737?
That is the brand’s own claim, repeated by Titan in audited annual reports marking the 280th anniversary in March 2017. The founding record itself has not been examined here, so treat 1737 as the brand’s date rather than a checked one.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Titan Company, audited financial results for the year ended 31 March 2024, dated 3 May 2024 — Note 4, the renaming to TCL Watches Switzerland AG and the liquidation.
- Titan Company, subsidiary financial statements by year — Favre Leuba AG listed FY2013 to FY2023 and absent from FY2024 onwards.
- Titan Industries, Annual Report 2011-12 — the trademark acquisition and the incorporation of Favre Leuba AG on 13 January 2012.
- Favre Leuba AG, accounts for the year ended 31 March 2016 — the Zug seat, four employees against none in 2015, and revenue of CHF 577.20.
- Favre Leuba AG, accounts for the year ended 31 March 2018 — FY2017 and FY2018 revenue and losses, the six-year business plan to 2023-24, staff not exceeding ten.
- Favre Leuba AG, accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020 — FY2019 and FY2020 figures, advertising of CHF 4,634,313, and the CHF 21 million shareholder support confirmation.
- Favre Leuba AG, accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 — FY2021 and FY2022 revenue, losses and advertising.
- Favre Leuba AG, accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 — the last published year: Solothurn seat, wholly owned by Titan, accumulated losses of CHF 36,506,028, capital of CHF 42,143,377, and the fall in long-term liabilities.
- Titan Company, Annual Report 2016-17 — the October 2016 rollout, Japan first, the Raider Harpoon and the 280th anniversary Bivouac 9000.
- Titan Company, Annual Report 2017-18 — fifty retail outlets in eighteen months, the Japan emphasis and the Watchstars New Star award.
- Titan Company, Annual Report 2018-19 — the Bathy 120 MemoDepth, and smaller cases for Sea King and Deep Blue.
- Favre Leuba official site, checked 31 August 2026 — the 1737 claim, the Le Locle and Val-de-Travers origin story, and current Swiss franc prices.
- WatchPro, 29 August 2024 — Silvercity Brands of Grenchen as buyer, Patrik Hoffmann, and La Joux-Perret movements.
- WatchPro, 20 September 2024 — the Deep Blue reissue of the 1964 original and its La Joux-Perret G100 movement.
- WatchPro, 3 April 2025 — the three current collections, the 22-model catalogue at CHF 2,200 to CHF 4,400, and the FL T01 tourbillon.
- WatchPro, 2 June 2026 — the line now sold as Deep Raider.
Titan’s Favre Leuba experiment is the best-documented failure in Indian watch retail, and Titan documented it itself. CHF 42.1 million of capital in, CHF 5.56 million of watches out, never more than ten employees. What it got back: trademarks carried at CHF 1.4 to 1.7 million, one award-winning halo watch, a fifty-door retail footprint it did not keep, and an expensive lesson in what a heritage Swiss name is worth without a distribution machine behind it.
The asset was not the problem. Silvercity Brands took the same trademarks, put bought-in movements behind them, priced at CHF 2,200 to CHF 4,400 rather than chasing a luxury tier, and had a working brand inside twelve months. That is a judgement about Titan’s execution, not the name. It also means the watches Titan sold here between 2016 and 2021 are orphans: no warrantor, no service point, no published calibre.
If someone offers you a Titan-era Favre Leuba in India, pay what you would pay for an unbranded Swiss automatic in the same condition — the heritage is genuine and, here, worth nothing extra.
