India's smartwatch market growth breaks records for the second quarter of 2022

Uncertain economic climate notwithstanding, the Indian smartwatch market saw no less than 50 new releases in 2Q2022, many of which were from popular 'made in India, for India' brands such as TAGG, Defy (owned by boAt), Noise and Fire-Boltt. Of those new models, about 50% fell into the sub-INR 3500 (~US$44) category.

Most of the devices might have been bought for the fitness-tracking features that have become more and more popular in the country. In addition, the major 'home-grown' brands have been making more of an effort to move away from the sector's online roots to grow off-line sales as well, a move that seems to be working out for them thus far.

Factors such as these might be why the market grew by a "record" 312% year-on-year (YoY), as estimated by Counterpoint Research. The analyst group also found that Fire-Boltt shot into a leading position in the market for the first time, dumping Noise and boAt into 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

Then again, all 3 brands combined to keep many typically prominent international names such as Realme, Amazfit and Apple out of the top 5. Then again, Dizo managed to work its way into 5th place with a 2.5% share in 2Q2022, ahead of its original parent, which had to grow by 76% YoY to scrape into 7th place.

Nevertheless, Samsung posted a growth of 295% YoY to get into 4th place, whereas Apple did manage to garner 250,000 unit shipments (or 197% more YoY) largely thanks to its Series 7 wearable.

Then again, the OnePlus Watch is still the most popular wearable in the INR 10,000-15,000 (US$125-$190) bracket; therefore, it will be interesting to see if the launch of actual and rumored next-gen products such as the Nord Watch, Galaxy Watch5 series and Apple Watch series 8 changes things in 3Q2022.