The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2022 - Issue 31

W hen Timex was established as the Waterbury Clock Company in 1854 by brass manufac- turers Benedict & Burnham, they operated differently from other watchmakers. They learned the rules of a 300-year-old industry but then broke them by stamping their gear out of metal rather than carving them from wood. “We made smaller, more accurate movements faster than ever before. In fact, even Detroit’s automakers were inspired by our assem- bly lines when the automobile became a thing.” By 1901, the people’s watchmaker, which they became known as, created movements that fitted into pockets and cost a mere $1. They helped the trains run on time and helped settle the Wild West. “When timepieces turned from fragile curiosities to durable everyday carries, even Mark Twain bought two,” they remarked. As pocket watches transferred from the pocket to the wrist, Water- bury Clock Company said it “took a little ingenuity and two metal bars welded to the sides of our smallest model.” Looking back to the 1970s, Timex takes Jada Brookes down memory lane with the revamp of their Space Invaders and Q Timex Reissue collaborative timepieces. Later becoming Timex, they catered for independ- ent women by liberating the man’s watch market with thoughtful designs and small movements that didn’t sac- rifice their legendary durability. “The women who wore them, and the generations of women watchmakers who created them, made Timex the most popular watch in the world.” At the start of the space age, they replaced the wound brass springs with the vibrations of a quartz crystal which meant that watch owners did not need to wind the watch again. As the world turned digital, Timex introduced the world’s first sports watch that crosses nearly every finish line in the world. “Athletes are so attached to their reliable Timex Ironman, they often wear it on one wrist with a GPS smartwatch on the other.” They then changed the way the world told the time in the dark with a patented technology called electroluminescent. “Our Indiglo® backlight made its way beyond watches to car dash- boards, appliances and even lit an escape route in 1993 at the World Trade Centre.” Another first was the connected smartwatch created years before most people owned a mobile phone. “The Timex Datalink is one of the very few wristwatches offi- cially certified for space flight by NASA. It used a digital eye to read information from your computer screen and built the foundation for today’s connected smartwatches.” They had the S1 Automatic designed by Milan-based design director Giorgio Galli and the American Docu- ments® collection forged in stainless steel with a Swiss movement in the US. Timex’s timepiece collections include Expedition, outdoor watches created for the outdoorsman, that go “the dis- tance when you take it on your next adventure - rain or shine, mountain or valley, and everything else in between.” The selection consists of Sierra 40 mm and 41 mm with fabric strap, North Field Post Solar 41 mm with recycled fabric strap, Camper 38 mm with fabric fast wrap® and North® Tide-Temp-Compass 43 mm with eco- friendly leather or fabric strap, amongst others. bitewatches TIMEX SEVENTIES TAKING IT WAY BACK