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Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

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Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#41

Post by rwc »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #35
mikeash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conspiracy theory: deliberately fail in order to demonstrate that “Made in America” doesn’t work so they’ll get less criticism about manufacturing elsewhere. More realistic: fleece suckers who think “Made in America” make it worth spending $500 for a $50 watch.

Are there laws about the "Made in" claim? That is, could they realistically have the movement and case and everything made abroad, then only do the final assembly in the US and earn the "Made in the USA" brand?

Yes there are laws. No they could not do that.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#42

Post by sithadmin »

AmVess wrote: post #5

The question is why? It's a $20 movement in a poorly finished case. The most important part of the watch isn't made in the USA. It's a $50 product being sold for $500. Further, it completely misses the point of what made Timex famous to begin with; excellent quality at a low price. This is neither. For $500, they are going up against some vastly superior products. For example, this cannot hold a candle to any similar…

>The question is why? It's a $20 movement in a poorly finished case. The most important part of the watch isn't made in the USA. It's a $50 product being sold for $500.

Because they saw Shinola doing the same thing, which proved that 'Made in the USA' on a watch is all it takes for suckers to pay premium for a mediocre product.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#43

Post by bardam »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #35
mikeash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conspiracy theory: deliberately fail in order to demonstrate that “Made in America” doesn’t work so they’ll get less criticism about manufacturing elsewhere. More realistic: fleece suckers who think “Made in America” make it worth spending $500 for a $50 watch.

Are there laws about the "Made in" claim? That is, could they realistically have the movement and case and everything made abroad, then only do the final assembly in the US and earn the "Made in the USA" brand?

Yes. In 2016 the FTC stopped Shinola from claiming their watches were "made" in America. Much more accurately they were "assembled" in America (Detroit) from foreign parts [1].

I entirely agree with the FTC, their claims were dishonest. As a point of comparison, Switzerland regulates what percentage of the watch must be Swiss before it can be claimed to be "Swiss," but it's not an easy question. For example, with completely made up numbers, low wage Chinese manufacturer sells mostly finished movement for $20 that required 4 hours to make. High wage Swiss assembler puts in another hour, at a cost of $40. Total time is 5 hours, 80/20 Chinese/Swiss and total cost is 60, 33/67 Chinese/Swiss. From time perspective, it's a Chinese watch, but from cost perspective it's Swiss.

[1] - https://www.truthinadvertising.org/revisiting-shinolas-made-...

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#44

Post by anthonybsd »

maxxxxx wrote: post #4

That’s a nice looking watch. If it had an automatic movement I may seriously consider getting one.

It looks horribly crafted to me. Look at the close-up of the finishing on the hands here: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ibkZQA68NpX... . Look at the uneven thickness of the hour hand, the roughness of the finish around the screw, the uneven application of paint on the font. This is shoddy at best. A $50 automatic Seiko has more finesse than that. Don't even get me started on a completely generic fashion watch dial design and the scratch magnet bezel.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#45

Post by kodis »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #35
mikeash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conspiracy theory: deliberately fail in order to demonstrate that “Made in America” doesn’t work so they’ll get less criticism about manufacturing elsewhere. More realistic: fleece suckers who think “Made in America” make it worth spending $500 for a $50 watch.

Are there laws about the "Made in" claim? That is, could they realistically have the movement and case and everything made abroad, then only do the final assembly in the US and earn the "Made in the USA" brand?

They already are. Their web site claims that they're using a Swiss movement. They're silent on where the case and other parts are being manufactured, but I'd guess that the movement accounts for a good portion of the production cost.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#46

Post by sokoloff »

anthonybsd wrote: post #44
maxxxxx wrote: post #4

That’s a nice looking watch. If it had an automatic movement I may seriously consider getting one.

It looks horribly crafted to me. Look at the close-up of the finishing on the hands here: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ibkZQA68NpX... . Look at the uneven thickness of the hour hand, the roughness of the finish around the screw, the uneven application of paint on the font. This is shoddy at best. A $50 automatic Seiko has more finesse than that. Don't even get me started on a completely generic fa…

Even the printing on the face looks terrible (top of the E and X in Timex).

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#47

Post by kodis »

maxxxxx wrote: post #32
galangalalgol wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automatic! Get off my lawn! You youngsters wasting all that weight and thickness because you can't be bothered to wind it yourself.

I would love a hand wind watch but those cost even more :).

Not always. Timex also recently released a reissue of their 1965 Marlin for $200 which is a manual wind watch, this time using a Seagull movement rather than what the original used.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#48

Post by scottlocklin »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #20
maxxxxx wrote: post #4

That’s a nice looking watch. If it had an automatic movement I may seriously consider getting one.

Agree completely. However I’m pretty sure theres a cartel (ETA?) for automatic Swiss movements that Timex doesn’t want to cater to. Which basically leaves this watch in the “overpriced fashion” category. And they probably don’t want an Asian movement cuz that appears cheap (although there’s some good ones out there). I think it’d be awesome to see a USA made movement again in this price point, but I’m not holding my…

Konrad Damasko is basically just a guy working in his garage, and he managed to do it.

Someone above mentioned Shinola which is, sadly typical of "US products" -basically they're LARPing at "quality" -selling to the type of people who pay $100 for a trip to a 1950s looking barber shop, or who go on expensive trips up the coast on the Jeremiah O'Brien liberty ship.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#49

Post by criddell »

duxup wrote: post #37
AmVess wrote: post #5

The question is why? It's a $20 movement in a poorly finished case. The most important part of the watch isn't made in the USA. It's a $50 product being sold for $500. Further, it completely misses the point of what made Timex famous to begin with; excellent quality at a low price. This is neither. For $500, they are going up against some vastly superior products. For example, this cannot hold a candle to any similar…

Aren't watches mostly fashion type products anyway and their value sort of fungible anyhow? I don't doubt there are plenty of really cool watches out there that are "worth" $500.... but generally they seem to be fashion products where even the price seems pretty disconnected with the actual product / utility.

Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. There are lots of watches worth orders of magnitude more than $500. If you can buy a $10,000 Rolex today and sell it tomorrow for $11,000 it was worth it, right?

Plus, nobody is buying a $50,000 Patek because it solves the problem of showing what time it is. It's about appreciation of artistry and craftsmanship and letting other people know that you are the kind of person to wear a Patek.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#50

Post by Emily2636 »

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