The home page of www.timexindia.com has a

The strategy appears to differentiate Timex from its competitors, Titan and HMT, which are building brand loyalty on the values of aesthetics and quality, respectively. Technology clearly offers Timex a strong differentiation, especially when the brand has so many technological innovations, from watches that are computer compatible (Datalink) to watches that act as digital fitness monitors. The idea is meant to establish the brand’s international lineage and to sell Timex on the “American” platform as the benchmark of quality.

The website is in line with the revised brand offering. It looks high-tech and has a series of interesting features – Celebrity Secrets, Amazing Secrets, and Technology Secrets.

Celebrity Secrets reveals who the big international stars wearing Timex are – Sharon Stone, Elton John and George Bush to mention a few. (Timex is obviously leveraging the appeal of placing oneself among such an elite list.) The Amazing Secrets section describes some death-defying facts of Timex watches that took a licking but kept on ticking. This section provides tremendous brand credibility, and if a few anecdotes from India were added it would give the brand tremendous fillip in the Indian market. Technology Secrets explains the different technological features of some of Timex’s more tech-exotic watches.

In addition to the “Secret” sections, Timex provides a lighter side of the site with The Club Timex and Time Out sections. The heavy tech feel of the company is lightened by a human touch, which helps Timex connect with the consumer.

There is something for everyone and the site has cool features that are relevant to Timex’s tech focus; for instance, one can send SMS from the site. All these applications make the site a trifle slow, which is something to consider when targeting a low bandwidth country. More dramatic applications could have been used to more powerfully reinforce Timex’s tech values, but this again may have slowed down the site even more.