Timex Fun Timer, 1968
A Late Sixties Timex that was a consumer offshoot of the military trials projects.
Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading, and for your interest in these pages. My contact information is below. So here is a rare Timex, from the eventuful year 1968, part of the Fun Timer series of watches that (with the exception of one model) ran for just one year and appear to be rare. They had mechanical movements, and were housed in a 1-piece resin/plastic case with solid lugs, and no removable caseback.
The case shape and dimensions were identical to earlier green-case military trial watches that Timex had made for potential government contracts. These lighthearted consumer watches were the direct offshoot of those projects.
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Looking at the back, the one-piece construction is obvious. No spring bars, but solid lugs all the way across. The back of the case is continuous with the rest of the case. Nothing opens. The back is smooth, and nothing is written on it.
The dial is bold in color and in contrast. The reddish pink color dial background is distinct from the more properly red case. What's more, it's a kind of "neon" or "Day-Glo" fluorescent vibe to it.
Day-Glo was in the 1940s a new class of pigments called "daylight fluorescent pigments" that fluoresce in daylight (as distinct with pigments that would only fluoresce under a blacklight. Day-Glo pigments convert ultraviolet light to visible light, resulting in color that is comparatively brighter than other types of pigments.
Look at the *hugely crazy* numerals! The are at least three times normal size for the dial, and the black paint stand out sharply against the red-pink, possibly fluorescent dial. The hands are the same black. There is no seconds hand.
(Apparently fun timing did not require the precision of a seconds hand.)
From the repair guide, model 3050, made for only one year, 1968. You can see the strap is one of those wide leather bands common in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
British VOGUE, November 1968
Strap not original, but it is a vintage strap, and I thought it looked good on it.
What is this? It is not a Timex, but a "Belforte" watch, made in 1965, shortly after the Oct 1964 MIL-W-46374 classification was published. It was probably the first watch to come out under these specs.
Timex also made a watch for a military trial, but there does not appear to have been a resulting government contract. This very rare 1960s Timex watch (maybe just 10 pieces!) is pictured immediately below.
Here is that 1960s TIMEX/US TIME watch, as you can see UNITED STATES TIME CORP., (the parent company of the Timex brand, before the entire company changed name to TImex Corp.) Photo and watch courtesy of Michael, at this Instagram. To see front of this watch, click here. photo also by Michael.
You can see the spec listing on the back is MIL-W-46374. Date, Federal Stock No. and Contract No. all left blank, because this watch is a prototype, and no contract was fulfilled, and therefore those spots are left blank.
Back to the Timex. Notice that the cases are exactly the same, aside from color, and caseback markings. Same design, proportions, everything.
Code at bottom says: Model 3050, movement 24, made in 1968.
Still trying to work out the lettering, some of the semiotics of this watch. Is it meant be be ironic, somehow? A late-Mod affectation, referencing, older typestyles? The lettering looks to have a kind retro feel, for 1968.
1968 was a kind of crossroad period, fashion, culture, everything, and 1968 was really toward the end of the Mod subculture. But it's possible the designers of this watch were influenced by later iteration of Mod styles, that probably incorporated some of the Hippie subculture. The bright, Day-Glo dial, the red case, the huge, goofy letters that I can't help but think are maybe poking fun at (by repurposing) some of the bog-standard cultural elements of the day, as was done by both the Mods and the HIppies.
JET magazine cover from1968.
It looks kind of like a toy. But it's no toy. It's a well-running watch, the mechanical moveement #24 probably has had no service in 52 years as of this writing in 2020.
What is this?! This is a different Fun Timer, also from 1968, with a "jadeite" color green case, and a different dial. Click here to see the dial. These Fun Timers came in green, blue and orange case/dial (hence, the three model numbers in the repair guide below. If you want to see my review of this green one, which includes info on the military trials prototype watch that led to it, see the link.
From the repair guide, that that other Fun Timer with the Roman dial was also just the one year 1968. The three model numbers 3030, 3040, 3070 refer to the three different colorways, green, orange, blue.
(Not mine, pics from I think Etsy. What are these? Above and below FUN-TIMERS, a much smaller watch (24 mm,) but an almost identical case proportion! Same fixed lugs, no opening caseback. These were released in the mid 1980s, and appear to have been an offshoot of the earlier FUN TIMER.
Notice the 1980s ones are TIMERS, and the 1968 is TIMER. I have three of these and if you'd like to see my mini Campers" as I called them at first, have a look. LINK 1, LINK 2, LINK 3. So, interestingly, these small watches, presumably from kids, have case lineage directly dating back to a 1964 specification for US military watches!
Not mine, but pic from Facebook, someone who has the light green version of the Roman numeral 1968 Fun Timer. It's the same model as the light green one pictured above in JerseyMo's photomontage, just a different person's watch, and showing the back.
From the repair guide, showing the 1968 title as FUN TIMER
I think you can appreciate the Day-Glo effect of the dial here.
(Tide detergent started using Day-Glo pigments on their detergent boxes, in 1959.)
This watch has taken a circuitous route to get to me. Maybe circuitous isn't the best word. But it has crossed the Atlantic Ocean FOUR times recently. It appears to have originally been sold in the US. The seller, George, lives in England, and said that he obtained the watch as a batch of many watches, purchased from the US. That's trip #1, when George obtained them. Then, I bought the watch from George for 21 GPB. George does not ship outside of the UK, so I arranged for a friend in England to receive the watch from George and re-ship to me. My friend sent it to me in Chicago (trip #2). For a very long time, there was no sign of the package. It was at least 3X the usual time for a package from UK to US. It didn't have any tracking, and I assumed it had gotten lost or stolen. At the end of the day, it's just a watch, nobody dies, but I was still kind of sad, as the watch is rare.
Then, after quite some time, I was surprised and very pleased to receive an email from George. The watch had been returned to him in England! (That is transatlantic trip #3). My friend in England, who had resent the package, missed one part of my address. It had made it's way to Chicago, but the final part of delivery could not be done. (But it's kind of strange, my first last name, which were very clear on the package, is unique in the world, as far as I have been able to determine. A simple Google search of my name shows my address! But for whatever reason, the "dead letter office" version in Chicago wasn't able to do that, or didn't do it, and the package got sent back to George.) (Mercifully, George had put his return address on the back of the packet. My friend in England when relaying it to me used the same package, covered up the old address with a paper having my address, so George's address was intact.) So, this was great news. George then sent the watch once again to my friend in England, who then sent it to me (transatlantic trip #4). This time, the address info was correct, and I received the watch. It was 77 days after the end of the auction. This watch has taken epic journeys to get to me!
Not from 1968, a year later 1969, but I could not help but include this great cover of Esquire.
The year 1968 was tumultuous, and largely defined by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Update: November 2020: This was amazing and very cool! Just by chance I saw this happen. My son needed help hanging a string of LED lights in his bedroom. The lights alternate changing colors. White, red, orange, green, yellow. blue. As I was screwing in a fitting, the LEDs turned to blue, and suddenly my watch looked very weird. Everything else looked blue, reflected black blue light, but the dial was a brilliant red. The reason is that the dial truly is made of fluorescent paint. My initial impressions of this dial in ordinary daylight were that it was unusually "bright," more so than expected, and I suspected maybe it was "Dayglo" or some other type of fluorescent paint. Well, it is fluorescent!
Fluorescence is when a surface/substance absorbs light, but emits light of a different and lower wavelength. Everything else in this pic aside from the dial reflects back the incident blue light; my hand, for example, is not fluorescent, so it just looks blue. Same with the watch case and strap. The effect was really wild. Click here for closeup pic of the watch like this.
