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
2 comments
I recently pirchased one, and it is a great watch.
Rex K Smith
In about 2012 they introduced a series of Timex-branded phillipine-made versions of the TX watches. I recently picked up a version of the TX 730 for only $120 (T49866) which was on-sale possibly because the white face and white hands are a little bit difficult to read. I’m extremely happy with my purchase so far. (http://www.wristwatcharea.com/timex-flyback-chrono-compass-review/)