ANALOG LIFE. Timex Camper x Anna Magazine x Face

"ANALOG LIFE"

Timex x FACE x anna magazine Camper in pink, featuring a hand drawn dial!

Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading, and for your interest in these reviews. My contact info is at the bottom. Here is a pretty cool Camper watch from Timex Japan, made in collaboration with a Japanese artist and a Japanese magazine. The watch, in a series with three other dial colors, each of which has different dial art, is meant as a celebration of what they are calling Analog Life, is a "call to presence," encouraging us to "linger in these slower moments because they comfort us in ways that hustling never can." This is yet another watch from Timex with a theme that I will loosely describe as "placing a spotlight on how we spend out time," including a few Camper models. I have assembled all of the watches I have, in this category, at this page, so please feel free to have a look at the others.

(This GIF is by Timex, FACE, anna magazine., hereafter referred to as "the collaboration group.")

Above, from anna magazine, with a sort of "manifesto" about the watch and concept of Analog Life. It is machine translation, but I think the message is pretty clear: maybe from time to time it's ok to ditch your phone, get into the sensuality and the joy of analog, and experience our senses in different ways, with new discoveries. "The fun of living in analog will come to mind again." As will be shown below, it's not just about time-telling...

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The above graphic is from the collaboration group, and shows the hand drawn nature of the dial, including a very rare example of the "TIMEX" name hand drawn on a watch dial.

This is an interesting triple-collaboration, where the dial design is created by FACE, the concept of Analog Life was developed by anna magazine, and of course the entire project supervised by Timex Japan.

FACE is a global artist. This is from the About Me, on his website. "Artist / illustrator born and raised in Tokyo, Japan I have a Taiwanese father and a Japanese mother. My areas of activity as a global artist have been expanding in and out of Japan, mainly those of apparel, advertisement and magazines. In 2021, my solo art exhibition will be held for the first time in 5 years."

Drawing by FACE

anna magazine is a "culture magazine...to convey the real fun of going to strange places to girls who seek surprise and excitement." "For such an anna girl, going on a trip is a very natural act."

If you are familiar with the Original Camper watch, a 2015 revival of a legendary 1980s and 1990s Timex, you'll recognize the base model appearance. Resin case with fixed lugs in black, typical luminous hands. The dial, of course, departs considerably from the OC, but even so retains some original themes, such as the triangle markers, and outer hash marks.

In addition to the pink, there are three other models. I HAD TO GET THE PINK ONE. (Image from the collaboration group.)

I have felt this way about analog time-telling, for many years, but didn't really have the best words to convey the feeling. But it's true. A clock or a watch with the centuries-old hands and face does allow you to "roughly and intuitively" tell the time. I'll put an emphasis on the intuitive part, as I look at a watch, where the hands show seventeen minutes to five, and I will see this in a kind of intuitive way, almost a "gestalt," that is different cognitively than a digital readout.

Dial detail, showing the names of the three collaborators. I can't think of any Timex off the top of my head, where the TIMEX name is hand drawn.

One of the other three dial designs, large format, so you can really see the details of FACE's drawings and design. (Image from the collaboration group).

From anna magazine, providing quite a detailed history of what led up to the creation of the Camper Watch in 1983, how it ceased production in the mid 1990s, how it was revived as "Original Camper" in 2015, and what's happened since then. The ad in the upper right is from an Italian magazine, 1983.

From the Timex Japan sales page.

This is stated to be a limited edition, with only "1000 pieces worldwide." That's a pretty small number, especially if that means 1000 total, all colorways, so only 250 for each color? That is really quite limited.

Drawing by FACE, found in anna magazine.

As I mentioned above, ANALOG LIFE concept isn't just about reading the time on a watch. Remember, anna magazine a magazine that thinks about culture, and how we live our lives, so they didn't limite the analog concept to watches. Six suggestions to live more fully an analog life are included, each associated with a drawing by FACE. For space reasons, I'll include just one, for PLAY RECORD, which aims to encourage us to enjoy the process of playing our favorite music with vinyl records, and appreciate the sonic variations from our digital mainstreams.

Others include 1) make drip coffee instead of instant, 2) take photos with real film instead of your phone, 3) send real letters with actual paper and pen, instead of texts and emails, 4) put away your phone and "try living in nature once in a while, and 5) travel, travel, travel!