Timex’s Ultra Affordable Retro Travel Watch Is Back With Two New Colors

A good travel watch doesn’t need a fancy complication, as long as you can handle some easy math.

World time bezels briefly became popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s as air travel became more affordable. The feature was essentially the coach alternative to the First Class GMT complication from luxury brands like Rolex.

Timex

Timex was one of the brands that helped popularize the rotating bezel marked with each of the world’s time zones. It revived its 1972 World Time within the Q Timex collection in 2024.

Initially released with a simple black and red color scheme, the long-since-sold-out affordable travel watch is back with two new dial colors and matching leather straps.

Timex

One reference has a blue minute track and central circle with a creamy off-white hour track in between, while the other reference has a khaki minute track and center, split by a black hour track.

When air travel was cool

The 1972 World Time is a relic from a bygone age when air travel was novel, romantic and, sometimes, even cool. The era-distinctive dial is a direct reproduction and was inspired by a time when airports featured avant-garde architecture and decor.

Timex

The geometric pattern starts with a single circle in the center, then breaks into twelve even segments in the middle ring, followed by twelve more segments, each broken into five equal parts, in the outer ring. A trapezoidal date window blends in at three o’clock.

Framed by the world time bezel, the circular pattern of the dial is juxtaposed by the angular cushion-shaped brushed stainless steel case. It all fits into a comfortable 39mm package that sits flat atop the wrist.

Timex

The familiar hands are borrowed from other early 1970s Timex reissues, and has lume on the hour and minute hands, which matches lume on the hour markers.

All of this is visible through a high-domed acrylic crystal, which creates an illusion of depth in the dial when viewed from an angle.

You do the math

Unlike dive bezels, world time bezels are more of a chart than an elapsed time marker. Rather than having to remember how many hours separate specific time zones, the bezel displays it on your wrist.

Each time zone on the map is technically organized by its relation to Greenwich, England. GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time, and it is the zero at the middle of a linear chart that extends twelve segments in each direction.

Timex

Time zones also have locally recognized designations like Eastern Standard Time and Mountain Time in the United States, which are too complicated to remember globally. So, a world time bezel often denotes each zone with a significant city.

By aligning the hour hand with your local time zone, you can clearly see the time in the other 23 zones. You just have to be able to add and subtract by at least twelve, which shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Availability and pricing

The Q Timex 1972 World Time is now available for $199 from Timex in both new colors.

Unfortunately, if you were a fan of the black color scheme, it doesn’t look like Timex plans on bringing that one back.

Timex

Q Timex 1972 World Time

Specs

Case Size	39mm
Movement	Quartz
Water Resistance	50m

• $199 at Timex

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