Introducing: Timex Revives The Intrepid and Q Timex Ana-Digi Designs
After an absolutely whirlwind of a week in Geneva for Watches and Wonders, where I got to see some of the craziest watches I’ve ever laid my eyes on, I’ve found myself needing a reset around watches, and that means going back to the basics for wrist time — my Giorgio Galli S2 Timex has been the daily. So, in that vein, I thought it might be interesting to talk about two of the newest vintage reissues from Timex in a month full of minute repeaters, Grand Feu enamel, and lots of precious metal. Treat this as a nice break amongst the many hands-on articles we’ll be publishing about cool — and expensive — things we saw in Geneva.
Timex 1995 Intrepid Reissue
This one is hot off the proverbial press, just released last week. It’s a reissue of a 1990s design from Timex, originally designed for sailing and diving. The silhouette preserves its strong presence on the wrist, with a chunky 46mm stainless steel cushion case and a thickness of 11mm. The crown sits at four o’clock, with the green Indiglo backlight pusher sitting at nine. The fixed, sloped rehaut of the white dial is printed with markings to complement the black bezel insert to allow the user to perform slide rule calculations, which is something I’ll admit I’ve never used, but I long to be the person who does.
The rest of the white dial is filled with printed hour markers and a middle five-minute counter ring. Hollowed-out black hands help with legibility and ensure that the minute ring is not obscured when you’re reading the time. As marked on the dial, the Intrepid reissue has 100m of water resistance, and paired with the black rubber strap, it’s ready to go straight into the water.
Now, credit where credit is due — this reissue is from the combined brains of Timex, Dimepiece, and Foundwell, no doubt a result of a pickup of the original piece somewhere. It’s certainly a gem of a retro quartz design (if we can call something from the 90s that), and little dashes of green around the watch help add a bit more personality to this model, priced at $199.
Q Timex 1982 Ana-Digi Reissue
Let’s go back another decade for a 33mm revival of the combination analog and digital Q Timex watch from 1982. It’s as charming as these ana-digi watches ever are, with a steel version priced at $179 and a gold ion-plated case coming in at $189. While the king of analog-digital watches certainly belongs to our friends over in Japan, I think that this one certainly holds its own with a charming layout, and anyone nostalgic for the Timex brand of old is sure to appreciate this. Admittedly, in a very clean design, the stylized “Q” is certainly doing a lot of heavy lifting for the watch’s charm, but we love it nonetheless.
With a very compact 33mm case and a thickness of 9mm, the watches are a great size for both kids and adults. In looking at this more, it just clicked for me that these might be good watches to teach kids how to read the time—you know, with both the digital and analog times on display. With the advantage of a digital module, the watch also comes with dual time zone tracking, a chronograph, and alarm functionality.
With these two new models, the Timex Q line has been fully fleshed out with a wide range of case designs and movements — from GMTs to chronographs to fully digital watches. While the characteristics of the line are broadening more than ever, it seems like it’s now a great playground for the Timex designers to double down on vintage aesthetics, and I’m here for it.
Honorable Mention: Timex x Peanuts T80 75th Anniversary
Now here’s a fun bonus, because what would a Timex article be without mentioning the latest in their Peanuts collaboration? Going all-in on digital is the Timex T80 watch, this time with a cute overlay celebrating the franchise’s 75 years. Most of Timex’s Peanuts designs have been printed on analog watches, so it was fun to see a digital watch get the treatment. The gang’s all there on the dial, and I love the playful silhouette-style art that keeps the overall dial subtle on this 34mm watch. Could I have done with the “75 Years” on the caseback and not on the dial itself? Probably. For those who don’t think that hard about a fun design priced at $109, this is a no-brainer to pick up.
So which one’s your favorite? As Timex product cycles go, there are always quite a number of styles launching at any given time. Let me know if there’s one I missed that you think deserves a closer look. But for me, the Intrepid is certainly the most interesting out of the three, and I think continues to capture the vintage Timex charm that makes releases like Timex Japan’s Ironman 8-Lap so iconic.
For more, visit Timex online.
Hodinkee
