A new era for mechanical watches
One would think that mechanical watches, being obsolete and all, would be mostly confined to Asian markets, high-end stuff for the rich and crazy, and a tiny slice of watch fans like me. After all, quartz works better, costs less and is easier to make.
Timex quit making mechanical watches back in the 70’s or so. Fossil has never made them as far as I know. Both are now selling them, for very reasonable prices. The Fossils are all under $100, and the Timexes look reasonable as well. Both have some nice touches - the Fossils have the winding rotor visible through the face, and some of the Timexes are equipped with power reserve meters.
Marvelous! A couple pictures:
Links:
Timex page
Fossil page
Fossil page for the watch pictured above.
I had previously disdained Fossils; they seemed to be fashion-oriented, cheaply made and often copied other designs. Guess I have to think again, because I quite like some of these and the price is excellent. And who would have guessed about Timex? This power reserve looks quite nice:
We live in amazing times. Pun intended.
February 6th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Thanks for the report on the two watches. I’ve never owned anything but mechanical watches, but they’ve been getting harder to find. (I’m forty by the way). I had a watch on order from Lehman’s, but the model has been discontinued. I found your page and ordered the Timex. Not quite as reasonable as the $20 Timex mechanical watches I used to buy at the drugstore, but it looks nice.
Thanks again.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I recently found a mechanical Timex dive watch with while cleaning out my parent’s house. It had probably been sitting idle for at least 25 years. I wound it up and it immediatly began working. It looks to be from the 70’s or late 60’s . The back of the watch shows it was assembled in Taiwan. I was very impressed that it started right up. Is there a way to determine the age of the watch?