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Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

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Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#71

Post by cr0sh »

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 :).

I was starting to get into "Russian/Soviet" mechanical movement watches a few years back:

https://wornandwound.com/an-introduction-to-russian-watches/

...but then with everything that has happened politically, my one purchased has remained that; I don't have a real good logical reason for not continuing my collection.

But I started out well (I think) - I ended up getting this particular one (not from this shop - I found it on Ebay):

https://www.russian-watches.info/shop/raketa-24-hours-watche...

...somewhat unique, because it was a 24 hour movement, which I'd never seen before. Plus the unique face color, etc.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#72

Post by anthonybsd »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #68
anthonybsd wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think this is targeted to a normal person, but the type of people who already own tens of thousands of dollars in watches and will buy this as a novelty with out even blinking. It's a weird and very rich (elitist) market. Yeah, and this "weird and very rich" market pretty much exclusively steers clear of anything that says "Quartz" on it. Hell, even state of the art mechanical movement like Seiko Spring Dri…

> Hell, even state of the art mechanical movement like Seiko Spring Drive suffered from being associated with Quartz watches, even despite the fact that it had nothing to do with them. They have a quartz oscillator controlled by an integrated circuit! Replacing a motor with a generator is neat, but the real trick is that there's no way for mechanical imperfections to affect the rate, making it easier to manufacture.*…

The thing with Spring drive is that Quartz oscillation in it while used for the same purpose (time keeping) is used in an entirely different fashion. Being a mechanical watch admirer I consider it more in the realm of automatics than in the realm of mechanical watches. I wouldn't give the same distinction to Seiko Kinetic though.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#73

Post by [deleted] »

bouncing wrote: post #55
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…

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 k…

[deleted]

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#74

Post by sokoloff »

kylec wrote: post #65
sokoloff wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Weirdly enough, the E in America has the same bite taken out of the top of it as the E in Timex

Makes me wonder if that close-up is a shot of a fake Timex.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#75

Post by ljcn »

anthonybsd wrote: post #39
galangalalgol wrote: post #19

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.

http://www.sapphytimes.com/movement/ephoto_show.asp?PhotoID=... This is just "normal" price. For a large production you can get an even larger discount. It's still a cheap movement.

And that's a standard quartz; the specs say -10 to 20 s/month.

Still ~10x more accurate than a mechanical watch, but not ~200x more accurate as thermocompensated ones are (as mentioned in the message you were replying to).

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#76

Post by irq11 »

bouncing wrote: post #55
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…

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 k…

”Up until the late 70s, watches were tools to keep you from being late.”

That’s not true at all. There have always been a lot of reasons to wear a watch that have nothing to do with getting the time. Cheap movements expanded the market to the low-end, but didn’t really change the reasons that people buy watches.

Fundamentally, watches are jewelry. That’s been true forever, but it also isn’t something that can be reduced to “aesthetics” alone (for example, people pay handsome premiums for better mechanical movements, even though it has no impact on the look of a watch. The idea of wearing a well-crafted, tiny mechanical device is itself an attractive prospect.)

It’s the equivalent of people who talk about Windows machines being “better deals” than Apple machines. After all, they both flip bits, right? If all you do is fixate on the function, everything becomes a commodity.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#77

Post by logfromblammo »

bouncing wrote: post #55
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…

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 k…

Who is supposed to be wearing these wristwatches? I can comprehend the use case for wrist-worn electronics devices that do more than just tell time, but we have mostly gone back to pocketwatches now--pocketwatches with a rounded-rectangular form factor that also function as telephones, cameras, notepads, maps, compasses, calculators, game consoles, and televisions.

As adornments go, I also think that handing over $500 to a local jewelry artist would get you a better bracelet.

The mechanical-movement wristwatch is obsolete. Bring on the Pip-Boy.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#78

Post by SamReidHughes »

galangalalgol wrote: post #54
wbl wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What. Both of those are insanely good numbers.

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#79

Post by logotype »

I’m a developer and a total watch nerd (mechanical watches). Partly what attracts me to watches is the micro-mechanics, but also how it’s a mix of artistry, craftmanship and old technology and know-how. I often post on Instagram, please have a look and hope you like the content: https://www.instagram.com/openworked/

Re: Timex Is Making Watches in America Again

#80

Post by coldtea »

petre wrote: post #64
coldtea wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Most watches are like that. In the high end, it's $1000 product being sold for $30000. > Further, it completely misses the point of what made Timex famous to begin with; excellent quality at a low price. They already do well in that market. It's not…

That's quite hillarious, $800 Casio G-Shocks and $500 Timex watches. A Tissot T Touch is priced in that range, why would anyone get a Casio or Timex for the price of a Tissot?

Probably because at least with the Casio and Timex you know you're getting something overpriced openly.

With the Tissot you're just getting a pretentious overpriced crap (whether it has this or that custom movement, the margins are still stacked way against the buyer).

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