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A growing number of American-based watch brands are striving to make their products as fully “American-made” as possible. That’s more complicated an undertaking than it might sound, but young American companies as well as historic ones like Timex are making continual inroads toward this goal with projects like the new American Documents watch collection, which was announced today. The new watches feature Swiss quartz movements, but Timex has gone to great lengths to manufacture nearly every other component on American soil.
Described by the company as a “labor of love,” Timex used American suppliers, mainly in the New England area, which are active in industries like aviation but that had no background related to watches. Even the crystals are Massachusetts-made Gorilla Glass 3, and the straps are Minnesota cowhide. It was a learning process both for the suppliers as well as for Timex, who invested additional funds in watchmakers to assemble the watches by hand in their Middlebury, CT, headquarters. This is the first time in generations that Timex watches’ manufacturing is occurring stateside, and proud details like an “Aged Waterbury Brass” case back and crown insert further reference the brand’s origins.
The Timex American Documents watches currently feature four watches, each 41mm wide and 10mm thick with a water-resistance of 30m. In addition to Timex’s historic American past, founded in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1854, democratic pricing is also part of the Timex identity. The new Timex American Documents watches will each be priced at $495, and the collection will continue to grow in the future.
While this may strike some as expensive for a quartz-powered Timex, when one takes into account the often astronomic costs of producing parts domestically, the price seems all the more reasonable.
Gear Patrol also recommends:
Timex Marlin Automatic Watch ($249)
Brew Retrograph Watch ($350)
Shinola Runwell Watch ($550)
