Historic American watchmaker Timex has been doing some interesting things lately. In addition to their broad line of quartz watches, they've reintroduced a line of inexpensive mechanical watches based on Chinese movements, and more recently added upscale lines under the TX brand. These are analog quartz watches, with retrograde displays (where the hands move back and forth in an arc) and lots of hands. Timex designed these in Germany over a five-year period, with six-sigma manufacturing. The watches have a lot of the details that you get with nicer watches, such as sapphire crystals, four motors, legible faces, deployant buckles, enameled crowns, and nicely finished cases.

There are three series of TX watches right now: the 300 perpetual calendar (which doesn't require adjustments on months with less than 31 days), the 500-series with a second time zone display, and 700-series with a stopwatch, second time zone, and an electronic compass. The picture is from the 730 model.

It's difficult to find prices for TX watches online, but they appear to be in the $500 range, which is quite good for what they offer. It's good to see the classic American brand stage a comeback, and I hope these new models succeed.

By Paul Hubbard