Timex, American Success Story
Beginning in the 1850s as the Waterbury Clock Company, Timex has grown into the world’s largest supplier of watches on the planet.
They introduced the first inexpensive mechanical pocket watch in the 1880s and it has been upward ever since. Growing out of Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley, the 19th century’s ‘Switzerland of America’, it now has offices and manufacturing facilities around the globe.
Successful over a hundred years ago, the company’s fortune and fame really took off in the 1950’s with the introduction of the Timex.
Wristwatches became popular after returning WWI veterans carried them back from the battles in Europe. But for many they were still something of a luxury item.
Timex changed all that.
Inexpensive, reliable, personal timepieces could now be had by just about anyone. And when we say ‘reliable’, we mean it. The company initiated a series of magazine and TV commercials to prove it.
Timex watches were strapped onto motorboats propellers, plunged beneath icy waters and dropped from three-story buildings. Whether tumbling over the Grand Coulee Dam or worn by a cliff diver in Mexico, the Timex became the watch that ‘Takes a licking and keeps on ticking’.
But there was much more behind all this than clever marketing.
Timex was indeed an innovator not only in making watches cheap and available, but truly sturdy and full featured.
Today’s Ironman is worn by more athletes than any other brand. It is used not only to tell the current time, but to time races, measure laps and more.
Even the case and band are designed with function in mind - intended to be worn not on the top of the wrist but on the side. That makes it easier to read while running, with additional help from large, slanted digital numbers.
The Expedition model is equally feature-packed. It provides the basic functions, yes. But it also has a compass in the form of a 4th hand.
That compass is adjustable for your particular magnetic declination, making it ultra accurate. With the Timex proprietary Indiglo backlight, it’s even easy to read at night, so you need never get lost.
Many models offer temperature read-outs, chronographs, measurements of the tides and much more. For those who want not just to look at their watch, but to operate it, there’s plenty here to please.
Water resistant to 10 atmospheres (100 meters), and offering a bidirectional bezel, it’s stylish, functional and sells for a modest price.
The company sold its 1 billionth watch a few years ago and shows no sign of slowing down - which is appropriate for a watch company.
Timex Company, like its watches, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.