GoldQuest International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Quest International Ltd, plans to finalise its tie up with Titan Industries by 2004 for the manufacture of gold coin watches.

GoldQuest also plans to set-up its own watch manufacturing plant in Hyderabad by the end of 2005.

Addressing mediapersons, Vijay Eswaran, group managing director and CEO, QI, said, "We are in talks with Titan Watches to manufacture various gold coin watches exclusively for GoldQuest. The next gold medallion in the pipeline is the Golden Temple in Amristar which would also be the first gold coin watch."

"There would be a series of four gold coin watches in a year which would have limited series of 8000 watches in each series. The price of the watch would depend on the ounce of gold used and we plan to price them at Rs 40,000 each and above," he added

Eswaran said, "We also have plans of setting-up our own watch manufacturing plant which would specialise in producing 'magnetic movement coin watches'. At present these watches are patented by us and manufactured only in Germany."

Eswaran pointed out Titan has also been attempting to replicate the technology used in the magnetic movement coin watches.

The cost of magnetic movement coin watches in the international markets starts from $800 each.

"We have told them the mechanics of manufacturing the magnetic movement coin watches and not the specific. If Titan is successful in manufacturing the magnetic movement watches we would enter into a partnership with them to set-up a new watch manufacturing plant," he added.

The company is scheduled to launch its Shri Shirdi Sai Baba medallion under the Divine Master series in Hyderabad in the next two months.