Westend Zeuss, the watch showroom at Malleswaram, which was inaugurated in the month of January this year, is home to some of the most renowned watch brands from across the world.
Shaveez Ahmed, the managing director of Westend Zeuss speaks to City Express about the growth of the Westend brand in Bangalore.
Tell us about how Westend brand of showrooms evolved.
The legacy of the Westend brand of watch and clock stores dates back to the year 1959 when my father, the late Abdul Latheef began a small shop of around 200 sq. ft. for watch repairing at 8th Cross in Malleswaram taking the name of Westend Watch Works.
Apart from carrying out watch repairs from this shop, he also sold watches. The family story also has it that his father, the late Mohammed Sheikh, was himself an accomplished watch repairer.
So, the love for watches has been running in the family since ages and still continues with the third generation now in command.
After his marriage, my father established another showroom of around 500 sq. ft. named Chandan Clocks from where he retailed only wall clocks and table alarm pieces.
Those days, the showroom dealt in the then famous clock brands like Master Clock, Scientific, Rivex and Super Scientific, while the alarm piece brands retailed were HES, Favre Leuba, Jazz and Jayco.
That was incidentally the era of mechanical clocks.
After my father's death, when I was just 9 years old, it was my mother, Begum Suriya who took over.
There were lot challenging phases then but it was my mother who was responsible for inspiring and guiding me through, and without her support, timely decision and blessings, the family could never have dreamt of establishing a line-up of showrooms in the city.
When did you enter the business and how were you able to carry forward the legacy started by your father?
I entered the business in 1988 when I was 18 years old.
In 1993, purchased the existing 500 sq. ft. showroom of Time Art at 3rd Cross in Malleswaram, which became a franchisee for HMT, whose watches were in great demand at that time.
This showroom, now called Westend Time Zone is presently managed by my younger brother, Diyanath Ahmed, and deals in multi-brand watches.
The family subsequently entered into the real estate business.
In 2005-2006, we opened one more showroom of around 500 sq. ft. at Commercial Street which became a franchisee of Timex for a period of 3 years.
This showroom too, was later converted into a multi-brand showroom.
How many showrooms do you currently run?
The Westend brand of stores has spread its wings really wide in the city.
We have the Westend Time Zone at Malleswaram 3rd cross, Westend at Malleswaram 8th Cross, Westend Watch co. at Commercial Street and now the Westend Zeuss at Malleswaram 15th Cross. The latest venture is spread across 2,500 sq. ft.
Which are the brands available in your latest showroom?
Up for grabs at this showroom are watches and wall clocks of noted and renowned national and international watch and clock brands.
These include Seiko, citizen, Fossil, DKNY, Armani, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Casio, Titan, Timex, Xylys, Fastrack, Aspen, Kenneth Cole, Skagen, Danish Design, Swatch, Foce, D'vine, Bentex, Romanson, Helix, Sonata, Zoop, Woodcraft, Seiko Clocks, Rhythm, Ajanta, Mars, Ethnic, Onyx, Sinar, Accurate, Opal as well as the high-end technology Jeiro clocks, manufactured in India for the first time.