To celebrate the 170th anniversary of American watchmaker Timex, we sit down with Chief Executive Creative Director GIORGIO GALLI to trace centuries of horological innovation…
Seconds may tick by quickly, but few watchmakers can boast keeping time for as long as American watchmaker Timex. The iconic watch brand is ringing in 170 years during a period of pronounced creative and commercial success, largely powered by the ongoing success of its Q Timex re-releases.
Timex was founded in 1854 as Waterbury Clock Company (the current name came much later in 1969) and originally sold pocket watches and clocks to America’s newly industrialised cities. Business really started to pick up when their first wristwatch hit the market in 1914 and by the 1950s one in three timepieces sold in the United States was a Timex.
For Chief Executive Creative Director Giorgio Galli, 170 years represents “a great achievement” for a company he has not only dusted off but transformed into a 21st century horological player in its own right. Galli arrived at the watchmaker in 2007 during its wilderness period and quickly set about giving this distinctly American brand a European edge. Almost 17 years later it is sometimes hard to know where Galli stops and Timex begins. “I’m very attached to the brand,” he tells MAXIM in a recent video call from his office in Milan. “You need to love it to make it successful.”
Galli’s love for Timex is evidently mutual, with the Connecticut-based watchmaker essentially giving the Italian creative carte blanche and the opportunity to design his own Giorgio Galli-branded Timex dress watches. Those automatic timepieces, branded S1 and S2, sit at the higher end of the brand’s price point and crack the $1,000 mark. “The S1 and S2 are part of a path with Timex taking in consideration what fits the brand – it’s Timex designed by me,” he said.
Galli has also spearheaded the blockbuster re-releases of the 1970s-era Q Timex range. Watches with links to the 1970s have been a boon across the industry in recent years, a trend most industry insiders trace to the resurgence of Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak. But few players have as deep an archive as Timex, which boasts dozens of 70s-era Q designs sitting on the shelf patiently awaiting a re-release. The Q watches trace their history to the quartz crisis of the early 1970s when low cost battery-powered quartz movements revolutionised mechanical watchmaking forever.
Over the past five years, Timex has regularly reissued models from its Q range, with the Q Timex 1975 Enigma set to become available to Aussie watch lovers in September. The lunar-inspired Enigma boasts a mesmerising blue face without hour markers and a striking silver tonneau case and coincidentally hit stores the same year as the first joint US-Soviet space mission. For those old enough to remember the original Q watches, the line represented some of the first affordable and widely available quartz watches.
As a large manufacturer that produces watches for fashion brands under licence, Timex was also an early pioneer of now ubiquitous watch collaborations. From Snoopy to Todd Snyder, Galli treats each collaboration as a new watchmaking adventure in the ever-expanding Timex multiverse. “Every new product is a new journey,” he says. Today, collaborations are central to the marketing strategies for both luxury and midrange watchmakers, but Galli is humble about his own influence on this phenomenon.
The next frontier for Timex is further building its reputation for quality finishes to rival the Swiss players while retaining its down to earth price point. In November, the brand will unveil a titanium version of the S2 automatic, the lightweight but ultra luxurious metal more commonly associated with the likes of Rolex and Omega. Despite the move into more deluxe materials, Galli clarified that Timex is not in the business of upscaling itself to the point of alienating loyal customers.
“We’re taking it a step further but we’re not making $10,000 watches,” he explains, insisting Timex was, and will remain an accessible brand for all. “We’re moving the brand perception to a higher level, upgrading but not abandoning who we are.” ■
Shop Timex at www.timex.com
By REILLY SULLIVAN
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