Timex

The Waterbury Clock Company was founded in Connecticut in 1854, part of the brass industry that made the region the centre of American clockmaking. Its descendants became Timex, and the company's history is one of making timekeeping cheap enough that everyone could have it.

The first breakthrough was the Yankee, a pocket watch sold from 1896 for one dollar — roughly a day's wage — which sold in the tens of millions and was marketed as the watch that made the dollar famous. Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt both carried one.

The company supplied enormous quantities of military timing equipment during both world wars, and its wartime work with Ingersoll and on fuse mechanisms shaped its post-war manufacturing.

The modern brand was defined by advertising. From 1956 Timex ran televised torture tests — watches strapped to outboard motors, dropped from cliffs, fired from crossbows — under the slogan it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The watches used hardened Armalloy bearings instead of jewels, which made them cheap and, crucially, genuinely durable.

Indiglo, the electroluminescent dial lighting introduced in 1992, became the company's best-known technology after a Timex wearer used one to guide people down a stairwell during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Timex remains privately held and produces the Weekender, Expedition, and archival Marlin lines.

Timex holds 40 models, from £55 to £280. Half cost less than £120, and a quarter less than £79. 6 of 40 are automatic. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1854

The Waterbury Clock Company is founded in Connecticut.

1896

The one-dollar Yankee pocket watch goes on sale.

1956

The torture test advertising campaign begins.

1992

Indiglo electroluminescent lighting is introduced.