The James Brand and Timex Tease a New Collab. It Sure Looks Like a Titanium GMT

Editor’s note: The Timex x The James Brand GMT has now launched. You can purchase it here, here or here, or read more about it here.

Back in 2021, design-forward EDC favorite The James Brand teamed up with everyone’s favorite affordable watchmaker, Timex, to launch the Expedition North — a 41mm automatic field watch in titanium. The response was through the roof, with the watch selling out almost immediately and seeing the kind of high-priced eBay flips typically reserved for the most hyped watch brands.

The brands followed up their initial collab with a white-dial version in 2022, and then changed gears with a colorful digital Ironman watch last year. Now, for 2024, Timex and TJB are gearing up to launch a brand-new watch, and based on the initial teaser, it looks to be their most exciting collab yet.

I Know a Rotating Bezel When I See One

There isn’t a ton of information out there on the new James Brand x Timex watch. The two brands jointly shared a cryptic teaser to their Instagram accounts that shows a close-up view of the watch’s crown. The teaser instructs users to follow the link in the bio to find out more.

Following the link takes you to a sign-up page where a wider shot of that same image is featured (it’s the same image seen at the top of this article). And from that image, I can deduce a couple of things.

First and foremost, this watch has a rotating bezel, which the Expedition North lacked. I know that from the ridges seen on the side of the bezel, along with the slightest glimpse of a black bezel insert with numerical markings. The grippy crown, with its cool inset green donut branding, also looks to be a screw-down crown. These two factors lead me to believe that we could be looking at the first TJB x Timex dive watch.

The Watch Is Almost Definitely Made of Titanium

The James Brand

The watch case is made from a gunmetal-colored material with a bead-blasted finish. It certainly doesn’t look like stainless steel, instead having the unmistakable duller look of titanium. Since the two brands’ previous field watch collaborations were crafted from titanium, I’d bet dollars to green donuts that this watch is also titanium.

A Dive Watch or a GMT?

Everything about the teaser image screams “dive watch,” but teasers can be deceiving. On The James Brand’s email sign-up page for the watch, the brand states, “For this project we’ve taken our minimalist design approach and applied it to an entirely new field watch silhouette.”

So it sounds like we’re not looking at a diver after all. So, what’s the function of that rotating bezel? A number can partially be made out on the bezel in the teaser image, and while it’s hard to tell what it is, it appears to be “08.” So could we be looking at a 12-hour bezel with unorthodox numbering rather than a traditional dive bezel?

The James Brand

I’m thinking The James Brand and Timex are going for broke here and giving us a full-on GMT with a rotating 24-hour bezel. Why do I think that? Well, if you open the teaser image from TJB’s website in a new tab, the text “TimexGMT” is in the URL, which seems like a pretty good indicator.

But what kind of GMT will it be? Timex currently only has quartz GMTs in its lineup, but TJB’s previous field watch collab with Timex was an automatic. I’m guessing this new watch will be mechanical, too, thanks to the affordable automatic GMT movements that have hit the market in recent years. My money is on the flyer-style Miyota 9075 for the watch’s engine, but the caller-style Seiko NH34 wouldn’t surprise me either.

We’ll Find Out Soon Enough

The James Brand will be launching the watch on its website sometime on the morning of May 21. Pricing is unknown, but assuming the watch is titanium, automatic, and a GMT, we’re likely looking at a watch that could be double the price of the Expedition North, which was priced at $350 two years ago.

Regardless of price, this watch is practically guaranteed to sell out immediately. So if you want to get one on your wrist, I suggest signing up for The James Brand’s email list here. Once the watch goes on sale, you’ll be able to pick one up from any of the following three online stores: The James Brand, Timex and Huckberry.

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