Timex Fun Timer, 1968
A Late Sixties Timex that was a consumer offshoot of an earlier 1960s 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, running very well and keeping time, from the eventful 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. I have a red-case 1968 Fun Timer with a different dial, click here to see that one.
The case shape and dimensions were identical to earlier military trial watches that Timex had made for potential government contracts. These lighthearted consumer watches were the direct offshoot of those projects.
The case is made of a single piece of plastic or resin material. It is a seamless, continuous piece of plastic. This includes the back of the case, which does not open. If you needed to get to the movement, you'd need to first remove the crystal, then remove the crown/stem, and allow the dial and movement to fall out of the front.
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The dial is medium-dark green, but has a pattern that I can best describe as "plasma," as it reminds me of the behavior of plasma, the "gas of ions," responding to an electric field. The hands are plain white, and there are Roman numberals III, VI, IX, and XII. TIMEX is written in the usual spot, in a relatively thin print. No seconds hand (apparently Fun Timing didn't require the accuracy of seconds timing...)
Case color is a light green, and in certain light has a kind of "jadeite" quality.
I will focus more than usual on the case, partly because I think it's attractive, but also because these 1968 Fun Timer series (as best as I can tell) represent the first time this one-piece case (derived from a military project) was used in an ordinary, non-military consumer watch. It is also the progenitor of the later (early 1980s Camper) Watch case which is nearly identical to the Fun Timer one. Notice here there are no markings on the back of the case, and the plastic is shiny.
The case is in extremely good condition, given that at the time of this writing, it's a 52 yr-old piece of plastic. Maybe one or two small nicks. Otherwise, the edges which are prone to nicks are sharp and clean.
From the Timex repair guide, here is the listing for FUN TIIMER. Interesting that it is not water resistant. Notice there are three model numbers, 3030, 3040, 3070. In addition to mine in green, there were two others, orange and blue case. Like my green one the orange case version had an orange dial and the blue one had a blue dial. All had the "plasma" effect. The single drawing here in black and white is meant to represent all three versions.
Notice that the original strap was was one of those wide leather models that were popular in the late Sixties and into the Seventies. Loops of leather slipped between the lugs, and snapped into place to hold the watch to the band.
The case is a wonderful example of a utilitarian industrial/military design that found its way into a consumer product. The original specification for this case was from 1964 (more on this below.)
The above watch is not a Timex, but a "Belforte" watch, made in 1965, shortly after the an October 1964 classification was published, detailing the requirements that watch makers needed to satsify, in order to sell watches to the military under this classification. The classification was MIL-W-46374, and this Belforte was probably the first watch to come out under these specs.
Timex also made some prototype watches during the 1960s for a military trial under the MIL-W-46374 specification, but there does not appear to have been a resulting government contract.
(There 1960s watches are not to be confused with Timex watches made later, 1981-1982 for a second round at military trials for Timex).
The 1960s Timex prototypes appear to be exceedingly rare, and are not as well known as the later 1981-1982 trials prototypes.
Below is an example of this super rare Timex prototype, photos graciously provided by the owner, Michael, who is at this Instagram account.
Back to the FUN TIMER. When you pull out the crown to set the time, you can see there is a short tube extension of the case. I would have thought this was a type of water resistance feature, but the catalog says these models are non water resistant. Maybe dust resistance? Maybe to just stabilize the crown and stem, and prevent bending or damage?
The case looks Modern. The amazing thing is if you look forward to the watches made in the year 2020, based on the template of a revival/reissue watch that came out in 2015 called Original Camper, the case design and proportions are identical. It has carried forward from the 1960s into the 2020 virtually unchanged in in design. Below is an example of the 2015 Original Camper, a quartz-driven watch.
It has been very difficult to find the right strap. No green will work. The green of the case is too unusual, that any other green in a strap will just "clash." I thought of a brown kind of color, as green and brown can go well together. Again, the green ruins it. You need more of a darker forest green, to go well with brown. So, you can see that for now I have it on a black strap that really isn't great in my opinion, but at least it does not appear to grossly clash, colorwise, as black has no color. Pink strap would work, as well as a red, maybe.
Photo by Michael
Apparently, only about ten of these were ever made! "About enough to fill a plate," according to one source, so maybe ten? Hands have green lume material. Notice the fixed-bar lugs, just like my Fun Timer.
Photo by Michael
The back of the above pictured watch. You can see THE UNITED STATES TIME CORP, the parent company that made the Timex brand (company later became the Timex Corp.) You can see it has the MIL-W-46374 designation, as well as the US TIME part number. Left black are contract numbers, Federal stock number, and date of issue. As these were prototypes, that information was not relevant, and therefore nothing was stamped in Again, notice the identical appearance of the back/lugs to my Fun Timer. Below is just a mag view of the stamp. Thanks Michael for all this information.
It seems virtually certain to me that the folks at US TIME thought, "Well, this prototype we developed never was entered into any contract with the military, let's turn this R & D with the interesting case into a consumer item." Or maybe even alongside developing the military prototype (regardless of whether or not the military gave them a contract) they were thinking simultaneously of using the case in a civililian, consumer watch, and maybe that's more likely.
This cover isn't from 1968, but 1964. It shows Col. Robert Bacon heading a patrol in Vietnam. Notice he's got his wristwatch strapped through a hole in the left pocket of his shirt.
The MIL-W-46374 classification was released just four months after this magazine cover. By this point, the US had been involved in the Vietnam conflict for about five years, having initially sent advisors there in 1959, followed by troops. By 1964, about 23,000 US service members were in Vietnam. It's clear that the MIL-W-46373 classification was aimed at producing a watch for US service members in Vietnam, to produce an inexpensive, non-repairable, waterproof and ultimately disposable field watch. As mentioned above, the "Belforte" was the first contract version with the plastic case, along with Benrus and Westclo, but the the 1960s Timex prototypes -- the plateful of Timex -- never made it beyond the prototypes.
It is great though, that the legacy of this initial design, based on that October 1964 document, led to the creation of thousands of not millions of Camper Watches during the 1983-1995 production run, and continues today with the revival of that form with the 2015 "Original Camper," all having that basic case form.
Haha. It's a cool but also kind of a funny watch, from 1968. Imagine it with the original thick leather strap. Many seemingly discordant semiotics. Military case, "hippie strap," fashion-y jadeite green, and top it off with ROMAN (?) numerals at four places on the dial. That must have been a kind of fashion thing in 1968. Super cool and rare Timex FUN TIMER!
