1968 Timex FUN TIMER, & 1960s Swiss "A GoGo" watch with very similar dials!
Which came first?
Haha, what?!
Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading. Here are two watches with very similar dials. The red one is from Timex, and the other one is an inexpensive Swiss watch, 1 jewel, with the name A GoGo on the dial.
I will say that my sole interest in this "A GoGo" is how its dial resembles the 1968 Timex Fun Timer. The Timex is both rare, and particularly interesting as well in that the red plastic case is a consumer offshoot of a case developed by Timex for a US military contract bid (circa 1966-1967). Lots more info about this watch, and connection to those government projects at the link.
This "A GoGo" is broken, was very cheap, and even though I have no interest in repairing or every wearing it, because of the similarity to this Timex, I really felt I wanted to see not just the pictures, but have the watch to be able to inspect.
end/
The dial on both watches are dominated by the bold lettering, with large numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9, with thick black dots at the other hours. As with the Timex, the quality of the print, the unevenness of the dots, has a "hand drawn" quality, which is likely deliberate, rather than from poor execution.
The numerals are about three times the size of normal numerals, and seem to have a kind of "typewriter" style that I'm guessing was maybe "old fashioned" at the time, and maybe meant to be a kind of ironic throwback?
Cheap, Swiss mechanical movement. For the "lower tier" of consumer Swiss watches that sold at low prices. One jewel, you can see the slightly reddish cap at the balance staff. I like that long "swan neck" ratchet spring at the right of the image. Parts are all unfinished.
The hands are boring, and uninspired. Plain gold. The dial is gold. The gold case actually is plated with real gold. it says 10 microns between one of the lugs. This indicates the thickness of the plating. A micron, the older term for micrometer, is a millionth of a meter. If you stacked the gold plate of 100,000 A GoGo watches, it would reach a height of a meter.
What is A GoGo?
Firstly, before that, have a close look at the lettering choice, which appears to be Blackletter type.
"The Blackletter typeface (also sometimes referred to as Gothic, Fraktur or Old English) was used in the Guthenburg Bible, one of the first books printed in Europe. This style of typeface is recognizable by its dramatic thin and thick strokes, and in some fonts, the elaborate swirls on the serifs. Blackletter typefaces are based on early manuscript lettering." (source)
Back to A Gogo. What does it mean. At the time this watch was made, which looks like "sometime in the 1960s," the term Go-Go or GoGo was used to connote a kind of style/lifestyle/leisure time centered around nightclubs, dancing, discothèques and youth culture.
It owes its name to the first discothèque, the "Whisky à Go-Go," established in Paris in 1947. This in turn was derived from the French translation of a British Film Whisky Galore, about the sinking of a ship loaded with whiskey. The French translation was Whisky à gogo !, "à gogo" being Parisian slang for "galore." (Wikipedia).
Back to these two watches. Though there are differences in the lettering, the relative size of the dots, etc, it is clear that the general dial design of both watches is the same. So, which one was first? Or is it more likely that the answer is "neither, really," because this dial design was a popular design among many manufactures? I don't know the answer, but I was pretty excited to find this kind of ugly A GoGo watch with a similar dial to the much more cool Timex.
Finally, here's a really great video and song by The B52's, "Give Me Back My Man." (1980)
Thank you for reading.
I hope you will like it.
Alan
Contact
Website: Alan's Vintage Watches
