Vintage Timex

(No, I didn't forget, there was no post on Friday as I was out of the office all day.) Today I'm wearing this Timex from the early 1980s. It was my grandfather's, and I'm almost positive I was with him when he bought it at a local discount store (I'm also almost positive the store was called "Nickel's" but I'm not sure how it was spelled. It was in Mt. Penn, near Reading, PA.) I know I've mentioned my grandfather a lot and I recall looking through his dresser drawer full of watches that either stopped working, had broken bracelets or straps, or were possibly too nice for everyday wear. I'm not sure what prompted the purchase of this one, but I'm almost positive it was cheap, something like $15. Probably because the strap or bracelet on one of his other watches got broken and it was cheaper to just replace the watch with this. I don't know when Timex stopped making watches with mechanical movements, but I doubt they made them much later than this (more recent watches notwithstanding.) Amazingly, it's still running fine and kept excellent time the last 24 hours. The last couple times I've wound it and picked it up it always seemed to run in fits and starts. I really didn't expect it to keep running all day, but I guess the movement of wearing it freed up some sticking gears or something. It's a pretty good looking watch, it looks like the watch you'd get if you handed a kid a box of crayons and said "Draw a gold watch" (and the kid was born in the 1970s, I suppose. These days you'd get a drawing of a digital, or a cell phone.) I'm sure it has no collector value, which is good for me because I would never want to consider selling it.

Timex Ironman Triathalon Chronograph T5B131

Today I'm wearing my Timex Ironman Chronograph. This was the last watch I bought before seriously getting into watches. I was wearing this one when my wife bought me my Hamilton Field Chrono, and I distinctly recall the friendly clerk at Joe's Jewelry looking at my wrist and asking "What are you wearing now?" and me being a little embarrassed to say "Oh, just a Timex." But honestly, it's not a bad watch. It's analog with an alarm, and I only have one other watch with that feature and it cost dozens of times what this one did. The chronograph seems to work well, it has an Indiglo backlight so it's pretty easy to read at night and it seems pretty durable with a 100m water resistance rating. Probably the worst thing that could be said about it is "It's a Timex." I think "Fossil" or "Oakley" would be just as at home on the dial as the case, band and dials all have a really nice look to them. Sure, the band and case don't have the weight nor finish of a $100+ watch, but this one cost me under $30, so I can't complain. (I did some searching around to see if this watch is for sale online right now and it looks like you can get it in the UK, although the $120 price seems a bit ridiculous. I was also reminded that Timex calls this a "Dress" chronograph, and I guess it is dressier than a digital Ironman chronograph, but it's certainly no dress watch.)

Timex 20th Anniversary Ironman Triathlon 5H941

Today I'm wearing my Timex 20th Anniversary Ironman Triathlon watch. This watch commemorates the 20the anniversary of the Ironman Triathlon watches. I have one of the earlier models as well, and this one is almost a dead ringer for it, with the exception of the LCD display. As you can see in the photos (especially the side-by-side one) the new Ironman has a very different display than the old one. Not only is everything about the numbers different, but the color is unlike any LCD I've ever seen. While the old LCD was a standard grey color, this new one looks green if you view it from straight ahead, but various shades of brown, grey and purple from an angle. You can definitely see this in the photos below. I still like the watch but it's a bit disappointing that Timex couldn't be bothered to make a display that was more faithful to the original. I don't know if the new display was different by design, or if it was just a cheaper alternative to use this display than produce a duplicate of the old one, but I have a feeling it was the latter. Perhaps if the rest of the watch wasn't such a good replica then the new display wouldn't be so jarring. I guess the upside is these things are dirt cheap, seem to work well and will probably hold up almost as well as my original Ironman. Both the old and new versions are also lighter and lower profile than any of my G-Shocks, so they would probably be good watches to wear for sports or any other time you want your watch to be as unobtrusive as possible, which I guess was the point of these in the first place.

I Love the '80s Week - Day 5: Timex Ironman Triathlon 737-A

As "I Love The '80s Week" draws to a close, I'm wearing my classic Timex Ironman Triathlon watch. This one I bought in the late '80s or early '90s specifically for bicycling. As I mentioned before, I could have probably bought a G-Shock for about the same price at the time, but the connection of the Timex to the Ironman Triathlon race made it a natural pick. When I was about 13 I got a mountain bike, but lack of mountains, trails or any other off-road areas meant I did a lot more road biking, so I purchased a road bike soon thereafter. Also, during that time period mountain biking was still gaining popularity while road biking was already huge, so it was easy to find on-road rides with clubs or groups. So yes, back to the watch, it has seen thousands of bike miles and excelled at being unobtrusive, durable and legible. The strap broke at some point and the watch was tossed in a drawer for a number of years, but a few years back I found an identical replacement strap and replaced the battery and it has worked great ever since. Recently, Timex issued a 20th Anniversary Edition celebrating 20 years of Ironman Triathlon models. I also have one of those and will probably be wearing it soon.