TIME is money – if it’s done right. No sooner had the doors opened on Time Out, in Colliergate, York, when sales in the modern new watch shop began its countdown to profits.

Now its general manager Shazad Ajmal, a third-generation jeweller with a passion for watches, believes that his shop is destined to become the New Business Of The Year in The Press Business Awards 2010.

His hopes are boosted by the instant positive public reaction to the later opening of a watch repairs workshop. This is the new four-person headquarters of what he foresees as a chain of Time Out stores throughout the country.

Shazad, who used to work for Beaverbrooks and The Watch Hospital Group, more recently headed up the watches and jewellery division of Alfuttaim, in Dubai.

He said: “Everything about Time Out is different – its modernity, the care with which we display our watches, our passion for timepieces of any kind and our mania for customer service.”