Three adjectives that watch retailer Red Army Watches uses to describe itself are non-conformist, daring and revolutionary.

And for good reason — the company markets brands that the majority of Malaysians have not heard of.

The very concept sets itself apart from many local watch retailers, who tend to be family-owned businesses that are passed down through the generations.

Set up in Singapore in 2004, the company’s founder Sugiharto Kusumadi and his business partners Soemantri Kusumadi and Julianna Chai made the move to expand into Malaysia towards the end of 2008.

Managing director Chai, who holds a majority share in Red Army Watches Malaysia together with Kusumadi, said although it was the plan to establish a foothold in Malaysia from the start, they needed time to study the local market before making their move.

“We spent a lot of time on the Internet checking out market research data and the imports of watches into Asia,” Chai said.

Malaysia was considered a strategic location for watch retailers because up until now, it was one of the few countries in South-East Asia that previously did not have a tax on watches, making it quite attractive to overseas buyers.

Red Army Watches sets itself apart by carrying brands that are not available in many watch shops, selling quite a number of unique watches.

“This is because we are a small retailer, so instead of trying to compete with bigger retailers, we decided to be different.

“It was easier to start up a concept like this in Singapore where the market is more receptive, but we needed to do proper research to determine how well the Malaysian market would receive us,” she added.

It also took them some time to secure good locations for their shops, but with a name like ‘Red Army Watches’, they quickly caught the attention of shoppers and attracted a following of their own.

Red Army Watches now has three shops in Malaysia in Tropicana City Mall, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and 1 Utama, with a fourth shop under a brand new concept due to open either by the end of the year or early next year.

Red Army Watches has a presence in South-East Asia with a total of ten shops across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“As the name suggests, Red Army Watches began by bringing in Russian watch brands such as Poljot International, Sturmanskie and Denissov,” said Chai.

As their popularity grew, so did their portfolio, which later included German brands like Alexander Shorokhoff, Junkers, Zeppelin, Schaumburg and Nauticfish, as well as other non-mainstream brands from various European countries.

Today, Red Army Watches carries close to 20 brands of watches and watch accessories under their banner.

Some of the most recent watches available in Red Army Watches stores include models from Swiss manufacturer Sevenfriday, Italian brand Giuliano Mazzuoli, Japanese brand TACS, as well as Alexander Shorokhoff and Sturmanskie.

“With our steady expansion on the number of retail outlets and brands carried, we enjoyed sales growth of about 20% from last year,” Chai said.

“Once the new store opens, we are hoping to achieve a consistent 20% increase in sales for next year,” she added.

Having chosen the motto “Acquirable Timepieces” for the company, Red Army Watches does its best to maintain close relationships with not just their customers, but also the manufacturers that they deal with.

“When we first started out, we noticed how there were many young working adults who wanted to own their first mechanical watch, but needed to save up for an entire year just to buy one watch,” said Chai.

“In the market at the time, there were either only expensive mechanical timepieces or cheap, lower-end watches, so we sought to fill that gap with affordable mechanical watches.”

Chai truly believes that one does not buy a watch; one acquires an emotional attachment with a timepiece – and this is reflected in how Red Army Watches pays attention to their customer demands.

As their loyal customer base expanded, so did the need for stocking watches from both ends of the price spectrum.

Watches from the lower range are priced as low as RM400, but their customers have the option of placing special orders for certain high-end luxury watches.

“We communicate with our customers to understand the trends that they are going for, and this information is shared with our manufacturers,” Chai added.

In dealing with manufacturers that are relatively unknown in the Malaysian market, Chai believes in working hard to nurture the brand and market their watches.

“This strategy worked well for us and over time, we realised that other retailers were starting to do the same.”

More information on the watches sold at Red Army Watches can be found at their website, www.redarmywatches.com.