KOTA KINABALU: A small-time online company selling watches here shot to fame after The Flash actor Thomas Grant Gustin was spotted wearing one of its watches at a public function in the US last week.
Gustin wore the timepiece designed by Kota Kinabalu-based Nayan Co at the Teen Choice Awards 2018 in Los Angeles on Sunday.
A fan had enquired after the brand of watch he was sporting in an Instagram post.
“Nayan,” Gustin replied. “A photographer I met in Malaysia gave it to me. It’s his own watch company. I love it.”
Since then, calls and messages including from outside the country have been pouring in for Nayan owners Fadzyinie Dullie and Fahad Nasir, the photographer who gave the watch to Gustin.
Fahad, 31, told FMT he gave Gustin the watch as a present to celebrate the actor’s engagement to Sabahan Andrea Thoma, who is half-Kadazan.
The couple held a traditional Kadazan ceremony to honour Thoma’s ancestors in Penampang last December.
Fahad said the watch was a “simple gesture” to Gustin, who plays his favourite superhero.
“I am a fan of his show on Netflix. I was excited to see him in Sabah for the first time, and to shoot the ceremony, so I just gave him the watch as a present.
“I never imagined or expected that he would wear it regularly,” Fahad added.
“We are so pleasantly surprised and proud for local Sabah brands. I have seen him wearing the watch on talk shows, too,” he said.
Before this, he said, business was slow. But now, “tonnes of calls” are coming in.
“Today alone, we had about 100 calls and WhatsApp messages in just three hours.”
Fahad now has 15 confirmed bookings, including from Singapore, and is expecting more in the next few days.
He told FMT he had been responsible for designing the watch, which was assembled in China, while his partner looked after marketing and sales.
“I’ve liked watches since I was young, but never went for any official training. I just read a lot of material on watches.”
In fact, Fahad and his partner consider Nayan as a side business as both of them also have full-time jobs with Fahad running a restaurant.
“Of course, we put effort into it but our focus was mainly on our other work. But now it seems like we need to put in more time here,” he said.
Given the rise in demand for their watches, he said, he and his partner had reduced their prices for now from RM280 to RM180.
“We’ll see how it goes, but in any case we are grateful for this opportunity. We never expected anything like this.”