Timex "AEROBIX" Heart Rate Monitor Watch, 1988
Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading. My contact info is at the bottom. Here is a special watch from April 1988, the Timex AEROBIX. Hou can see it's a plastic-cased digital LCD watch with functions for determining your heart rate.
Note: this is not like modern fitness devices for the wrist, where your heart rate and possibly other physiologic parameters can be detected from your skin surface. This Timex provided a convenient method whereby you could determine your heart rate, manually.
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What exactly was/is aerobics? Many people old enough may associate the term with the "aerobics craze," which was definitely real, during the 1980s, which exploded worldwide after the Jane Fonda workout videos were launched in 1982. But both the term and the method of exercise were developed in the 1960s by Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, and Pauline Potts, both of the US Air Force.
Cooper's book, Aerobics, shown below, was published in 1968. "At the time the book was published there was increasing awareness of the need for increased exercise due to widespread weakness and inactivity." [1]
In 1972, Mildred and Kenneth Cooper published "Aerobics for Women."
Plate-like caseback with four screws, very common with 1980s Timex, having typical info, including 40, indicating manufacture April 1988.
Here is a 1988 ad for the AEROBIX, showing three colorways. Mine is the middle one, and notice it's pure white in the picture, which tells me that the plastic of my watch has yellowed over the decades. Pretty common. (Also, notice the very '80s combo of hot pink, and black.)
This ad suggests that the AEROBIX can protect your heart better than your ribcage. It's a bit of a silly argument, in that both can protect in different ways. Your ribcage and chest call can protect your heart from direct physical trauma, but they are suggesting that the AEROBIX can protect your heart by preventing overworking. I'm sorry to make such a distinction, and I realize that advertising is allowed to make "puns" and things like that, but I feel like I just need to point this out.
By 1988, there must have been concern about overworking your heart during aerobics, possibly heart attacks during exercise, etc. This watch has a feature for you to determine your heart rate. You are meant to push the button, as you are feeling for your pulse. The button must activate a 10-second timer, because when it beeps, you multiply the number of pulses you detected by six, to get your heart rate, in beats-per-minute.
The strap on this watch is terrible. In addition to the rounded "ridges" that look like the Michelin Man flattened out, the strap is secured by Velcro. In my opinion, Velcro is one of the worst methods to secure a strap. Terrible.
The strap can be removed by sliding either end out of the special slots in the "lugs" area of the case.
(Above pic source.)
"Sinus tachcardia." Means a faster than usual heart rate, more than 100 beats-per-minute, but still and organized rhythm, with the origin of the electrical impulse, as it should be, at the "sino-atrial" node of your heart.
During peak aerobic exercise, most adults will experience normal, physiologic sinus tach, and this Timex watch will likely be registering heart rates of greater than 100. Sinus tach is a normal response to exercise. There are, however, some uncommon pathologic forms of sinus tach, such as this, and that, if you're interested.
