Timex Q The 70's
There is A before B. Before Quartz watches
were electric watches. For a brief period of time electric watches were cutting
edge and than Seiko made it first true quartz watch. I going to describe Timex
Q and what made it interesting addition to my collection as one letter which
came before.
I am a devoted supporter of quartz watch as
a first choice when it come to simple question what to get. Quartz is reliable,
stylish and worry free always on time. Also, it affordable unless you talking
about some grand Swiss brands. Nature of this reliability grows out of
simplicity of quartz moment. It can be 1 second a year with half moving parts
of a mechanical watch. Resurgence of Swiss watchmaking owns to this simplicity
and disposability embedded into cool, funky or stylish design. Swatch made it
cheaper and simpler than it was before, yet you got reliable and accurate
enough watch with convenience of no winding your watch each day. It is
brilliant!
Self winding mechanical watches were present
since 19 century owning to talent of Mr. Breguet. But you ended up with more
moving parts and thicker watch. Electric clock was around 19 century along with
other cool devices. However, until 20 century and widespread of domestic
electricity such clocks were rather experimental. In an essence electric clock
is very similar to regular one with addition of magnets pushing “pendulum”. You
don't need to wind it more accurate and it ticks like a mechanical one.
In 1950-s technology and transistors become
small enough to be fitted into wristwatch. Which allowed to build watch you can
use for year without changing a battery. There are different configurations
with later ones including electronic control over time measurement resulting in
higher accuracy. Timex had them in affordable package in 70-s. I am not sure
about exact manufacturing date but is for sure something close to 1976-77.
Watch is day-date with split day date
window. Hands are thin and shiny with some cheap lume strokes.
Hour marks are uniform with bold 12 o'clock
mark. Face is transition gradient from dark indigo blue on the markers to kind
of olive ish tint in the middle. This transition makes both markers legible and
lightens the look of the watch. There is
square faceted “crystal” to give this 70-s spin. I think it is nice and lively
Watch is exceptionally light (no stainless steel or steel for you) and pretty
thick. Size and lugs are forefront of accelerated growth revolution to come.
Watch was made at Taiwan. Apart from Bruce Lee movies i can't think of any
association with Taiwan of the 70-s. Ironically, this Timex was one of the
first high tech industries to set foot in Taiwan.
So what this watch is? Is it timeless
design? I don't think so. Design is clean and would not be out of date today,
but it undeniably mid-late 70-s. Oil is expensive and cars are lame. Is it
pinnacle of technology? No, rather Neanderthal branch of evolution. But in all
senses it elegant statement to it time with tasteful design, a lot of forward
thinking and a lot of ideas in manufacturing which flourish today.
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