Luminox Watches

I was out in Gadong and Kiulap the other day window shopping Luminox watches. I have only heard of Luminox watches over the last 2 months. Apparently His Majesty wears one. The craze caught on at MOD and almost everyone I met wore one. So I thought I will have a look at what this watch is all about.

There are apparently three shops in Brunei which sell these watches, one in Kiulap (same block as Mothercare), one in Gadong (in Centrepoint) and another in Seria (along Baiduri or BIBD). Luminox watches are well known for its illumination system. The watches used a tube system so in the dark you can still use it and these tubes light up for about 10 years.

The watches are American based on Swiss technology. The name itself in Latin means night (nox) light (lumi). The watches are fairly reasonable costing from $300 onwards. The one in Seria is the cheapest and the lady in Centrepoint said that the Seria one is not the authorised centre but selling the watches from an authorised centre based in Miri or something like that.

Anyway, what I wanted to get at is how Luminox watches get well known. You know, despite the technology, the company struggled to make money. It was the American Army that made them famous. It was in 1993 that the US Navy's Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) teams needed a watch to use on their night missions and Luminox worked with them for 9 months and coming out with the first Navy SEAL watch. That was the turning point. In 1999, the US Airforce wanted similar watches for their F-117 Nighthawk stealth pilots.

The company was able to leverage on these and made a name for itself. The question here is would a similar Brunei company given the opportunity would be able to leverage on that opportunity?