Timex

About Timex

Timex traces to the Waterbury Clock Company of 1854 and built its reputation on the 'dollar watch' — a timepiece a working person could actually afford. Its 1950s advertising put watches through torture tests on live television under the slogan 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking'. Indiglo, the glowing electroluminescent dial launched in 1992, is still the brand's most recognisable trick.

Signature models

The references that define the house — and the ones you are most likely to meet.

• Weekender
• Camper
• Expedition
• Marlin
• Q Timex Reissue
• Ironman

What to look for

Details worth checking before you trust a dial. None of them certify authenticity on their own.

• An Indiglo button — usually the crown itself, which pushes in to light the whole dial evenly
• A pressed-steel or brass case; Timex cases are light and rarely heavily finished
• 'MOV'T MALAYSIA' or 'PHILIPPINES' on the dial base is normal, not a red flag
• Mechanical models like the Marlin have a small crown and no seconds hacking — that is original behaviour

Facts

• A Timex Ironman was the watch Bill Clinton wore in the Oval Office, making a $50 quartz watch briefly presidential.
• Timex once made mechanical movements with pin-lever escapements — cheap to build, impossible to service economically, and the reason so many were simply thrown away.