43. Timex
The anti-smartwatch
America’s most ubiquitous timepiece has almost disappeared, many times, but Timex has always found a way. Founded in 1854 to compete with expensive European models, the company synchronized industrial society in the late 19th century with the Yankee pocket watch. Priced at just one dollar—within reach of workers—the “dollar watch” eventually sold over 40 million units. Timekeeping became accessible, commonplace.
Facing bankruptcy after WWI, the company joined forces with Walt Disney to produce the 1933 Mickey Mouse watch. It launched at the Chicago World’s Fair, selling 11,000 units in one day. A cartoon character and a dying watch company saved each other by offering the country an affordable, whimsical morale boost.
The slogan “Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking” helped Timex dominate the postwar years, with advertised torture tests—placed in a paint mixer, frozen in an ice cube tray, swallowed by a cow—establishing Timex as the best-selling watch in the world by the late 1960s.
When Japanese companies introduced inexpensive, highly accurate quartz watches in the 1970s, Timex faced being beaten at its own game. The company revived itself with the Ironman Triathlon in 1986—still the gold standard for endurance athletes. In 1993, Indiglo’s glowing blue-green face lit a darkened staircase for evacuees fleeing the World Trade Center bombing.
Recently, the embrace of analog has recast Timex as a desirable anti-smartwatch, with re-released classic midcentury designs (one version is called The Draper). Which begs the question: what version of time will we need next?
Special thanks to Steve Satterwhite for suggesting the Timex.
Links:
“The Mickey Mouse Watch Is Born in Connecticut,” by Leslie Landrigan, New England Historical Society
The (Inexplicably Tri-Intertwined) History of the Timex Ironman Watch – Sarah Wassner Flynn, Triathlete
The Rise of Mechanical Watches Among Quartz-Focused Brands – Erik Slaven, Monochrome
The weird but true story of how Timex watches became fashionable again - Brad Lanphear, The Manual
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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 words on 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. Through December 31, 2026.
I’m looking for ideas for this series — have something you’d like me to consider for inclusion? Please feel free to leave a comment!
This was fun to learn! I remember my first Timex--had it for years. Anyway anti-smart brings me to the 21st century and stuff we just don't need, or I don't need. I'm trying to buy a newer car and drove a demonstrator embossed with such extravagance, I was literally overwhelmed and had to escape. I counted at least twenty "buttons" I did not need or would use. And the three-year old SUV was outrageously expensive. There is nothing simple anymore? Where did it go? I continue to look, and then sadly I haven't worn a watch in years because I have this phone....