REVELOT RISING

Kevin Hor on disruption, durians, and doing things differently.

- ANANDHI GOPINATH

THE GLOBAL WATCH INDUSTRY has never lacked drama—heritage-soaked maisons in Switzerland and beyond have spent centuries weaving tales of precision and prestige. But from Malaysia, a new voice is making itself heard, and we love how it is making a big deal of itself. Kevin Hor, founder of Revelot, has built a brand that thrives on provocation, playfulness, and cultural pulse.

Hor says the spark for Revelot came from a mixture of passion, timing, and opportunity. “I have been exposed to watches since a young age and I am thankfully gifted with creative talent in design and creation,” he reflects. “In my early days I found a lot of complacency in many mass market brands where designs were uninspiring, and corners were cut. I've always looked at watches and imagined how they could be made better. That's when I took the courage and started Revelot in 2017.”

The brand actually began on Kickstarter, raising over RM750,000 in 2021, a fact Hor describes as a stepping stone rather than a shortcut. “We've seen a shift in the retail landscape with savvy consumers used to online shopping and crowdfunding,” he says. “Kickstarter provided us with a platform to showcase our idea to the world and raise funds at the same time. It has been a great launchpad for us and many other [horological] microbrands.”