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Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

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51–60 of 103 posts

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#51
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…

Wow, great catch! That is absolutely shameful.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#52
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…

[deleted]

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#53

Interesting article on doing more manufacturing in America. The problem is that this is an extremely expensive and niche product. I want slightly more expensive products made in the USA and I'll pay a premium for it, but nothing astronomical. If I can pay 20% more on coffee and chocolate to make sure the farmers were paid a living wage, we can do similar things in the US. I understand that US wages are much higher an…

>Globalism has brought down prices and made many things very cheap and affordable, but at what cost? That depends whether you consider an American job more valuable than a Chinese one. America has the wealth to provide a safety net, it's not the fault of globalism that it doesn't.

> America has the wealth to provide a safety net, it's not the fault of globalism that it doesn't.

The US has an enormous safety net. What are you referring to? On total net social spending, the US ranks just below France at the very top in the OECD, with 30% of all economic output directed at that. For comparison, Sweden and the UK are at 24%. For strictly public-based social spending, the US is ranked with New Zealand and just below the UK, and ahead of Canada and Australia.

On strictly public social welfare spending as a share of the economy, the US ranks in front of: Canada, Australia, Iceland, Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland.

At the rate US public social welfare spending is increasing, it'll surpass the UK and Japan in the coming decade.

Most of the total governmental budget in the US (local, state, federal) goes to its various social programs whether entitlements or traditional welfare state spending. For one increasingly large example, the huge entitlement programs in the US involve very large welfare funds transfers to prop up the social safety nets.

Just the taxpayer funded healthcare systems for free healthcare services (mostly for the poor and disabled) in the US cost $700-$800 billion now when all levels of spending are accounted for.

$7.6 trillion in total government spending. Roughly 3/4 of that is social program spending directed at various safety nets.

The US increased its Federal budget by 9% most recently. That's something like a $330-$350 billion increase in one year, at just the Federal level. The vast majority of that is social safety net spending increases.

While most developed nations are aggressively restraining their welfare states at this point due to cost, the US continues to expand its welfare state (thus the permanent near trillion dollar budget deficits that are looming, of which ~20% is excessive military spending and ~10% is recent tax cuts (some of which resets), the rest, roughly 70%, is to fund social programs).

The myth that the US doesn't have any social safety net really needs to die given the trillions of dollars the US spends every year on it.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#54
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thermally compensated crystal is one or two orders of magnitude more accurate than a ten dollar Casio or Timex. Less than one second per year. That said, mostly you are right, a 5 million dollar patek will sell a few copies to someone... It's good to be king I guess.

Your body heat makes an excellent oven for a wristwatch.

I've found the opposite. A cheap Casio lost less than a second in two years sitting on my desk, but a whole second in the month I wore it.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#55
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…

Questions of cost and "why" apply broadly to the whole category of watches. Up until the late 70s, watches were tools to keep you from being late.

Since then, you've been able to get a cheap, reliable watch for next to nothing. Quartz movement, combined with mechanization of production, ensured that. The whole industry had to adapt to making watches themselves sort of an aesthetic statement, not a practical tool to keep you from being late.

At this point, any watch costing more than $25 is itself an aesthetic piece. Part of that aesthetic is where and how it's made. There's probably a market for watches made in Antarctica because of whatever sense of taste that "story" appeals to.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#56
post #32

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 :).

I got a domed sapphire Hamilton hand wind for just over a hundred. And don't ignore used. My favorite was just over 50 USD but it's from the late 60s. Domed acrylic hand winds are the best.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#57
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All good points, but they should have selected a non novelty grade movement to start out with. Landfills and warehouses are filled with this type of corporate vanity product that failed to deliver. Beyond that, Timex is a brand name relegated to disposable $20 watches. Trying to fluff up their mind share with a poorly made and laughably priced product is not going to work out for them.

> novelty grade movement It's from Ronda and it's a good movement.

It's a $20 retail movement in a $500 watch. It's many steps away from the quality of a similarly priced Seiko product.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#58
post #25
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.

Thd majority of consumer products out there exhibit this quality. After certain price point you’re just paying for branding or perception/projecting Why doesn’t everyone buy Toyotas? It’s not being a sucker, unless we broaden the term where most all of us are suckers.

> Why doesn’t everyone buy Toyotas?

Because nobody can afford 'em?

Ok - I'm speaking mainly of their pickups, which are (overall) great vehicles (disregarding the earlier frame-rot issue they had in the early 2000s).

But they're so great, that even used ones sell for absurd amounts...

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#60
post #11
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…

>it completely misses the point of what made Timex famous to begin with; excellent quality at a low price. Brands change, particularly fashion brands. Many high-end brands become debased and low end brands slowly scale up in quality to become high-end a decade later. Timex doesn't need to make a lot of 500 dollar watches because they wont sell a lot of 500 dollar watches. It might however move the perceived value of…

> Brands change, particularly fashion brands. Many high-end brands become debased and low end brands slowly scale up in quality to become high-end a decade later.

My wife and I have noticed this kind of trend with fast food. At one time, certain fast-food brands were considered "higher-tier" than other fast-food brands, but over time, they have swapped places (in some cases more than once).

The only ones which seem to "stay where they are" have been McDonalds (not for trying, though) and Taco Bell (they know their spot and market - smart choice, I'd say).

The others seem to migrate around, depending on the market, etc.

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