Skeletonized TIMEX × BEAMS BOY / 別注 Original Camper CLEAR

TIMEX Skeletonized Camper, aka "Jellyfish Camper," [Official name "TIMEX × BEAMS BOY / 別注 Original Camper CLEAR ¥13,500 (税込)"]

Hello, this is Alan. Thanks for reading. My contact info is at the bottom of the page. Here is an interesting variant of the "Original Camper" 36 mm quartz watch, released by TIMEX Japan, in June 2018. The watch was a collaboration project with TIMEX and BEAMS, a privately-held company calling itself a "pioneer of lifestyle retailing," with 150 stores mostly in Japan, but also in Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Beijing.

TIMEX has collaborated previously with BEAMS and BEAMS BOY, including the sort of infamous "mirror image," versions of the Original Camper, with Engineered Garments. BEAMS BOY is a subdivision of BEAMS, and is described as a retailer selling clothing and accessories "made for women who love the strength and function found in men's fashion."

This Camper / Mk1 TIMEX is characterized by its transparent and translucent construction. Instead of the usual opaque dial, the dial is totally transparent, and on this transparent dial are printed numerals and dial markings. This allows visualization of the underlying movement, the crown stem, and the movement spacer. The spacer (as well as the caseback) are translucent, and the case is made of transparent resin material, that to me resembles lucite.

This is a pretty cool image, but it is misleading in that the watch will never look like this on your wrist! This is not the result of an INDIGLO function or other internal light, but is the result of my shining a small flashlight through the back of the watch, to illustrate its translucent and transparent nature.

As long as I'm on the subject of sort of disclaimers: all watch images on this page are mine, of the watch, box, strap, etc, unless specified. There will be very few from the BEAMS site, as well as some screen-saved text info from the BEAMS pages.

Also, this review will be longer than my usual reviews, with more photos than usual.

This image is from BEAMS. Two different clear campers were made. Mine is the one with white hands and printing. The other you can partially see has black hands and printing, except for the white luminous material. A digital LCD clear watch was also part of the series.

TIMEX / BEAMS have called these "Clear," which sounds about right; I have additionally called them "Jellyfish Camper," rightly or wrongly, because of the way you can see into the internal structures of jellyfish.

From the BEAMS sales page (as will be all other black background text images on this review). NOTE: this and all the others are machine translations of the original Japanese. There will be errors. For example, "minimum functionality" probably means more like "functional minimalism."

Notice that they refer to it as "skeleton." I'm perfectly fine with that. This is a long used term in watchmaking, that appears to relate to any part of the watch made more visible, either by a clear "display" back, absent or clear dial, and often cut-outs in the movement plates themselves, to allow more of the movement to be visible, compared with a standard movement. I think any version of "greater visualization" of the parts of a watch can be be called skeleton, by my book.

Notice they say, "first ever skeleton Camper." This is correct, but it is not the first skeleton TIMEX! More than 30 years ago, in 1987, there were at least two similar skeleton watches, small and probably for kids called PUZZLE TIMEX. I have two of these, actually, and I'll show them below with more description, but if you want a sneak preview of one of them, click here.

Watch comes with a translucent silicone strap. "TIMEX" is embossed on the undersurface of the strap, so it looks backwards when seen from the front. Nice look here at the clear case.

The item number in the above screen refers to the Clear Camper with white printing and hands, and is designated WOMEN. This is the one I bought. The item number in the below screen refers to the Clear Camper with black printing and hands, and is designated MEN.

Hands (and dial markers) glow with the green luminous material typical for all of the Original Camper models that include luminous. (The red border is part of the jeweler's loupe I used to get this closeup pic of the hands,)

Close up pic shows the front plate of the movement with a few brass-colored rivets. You can't see the dial at all, totally clear, but the numerals and other marks are printed on it, and you can see it hovers just anterior to the metal plate. The white plastic material around the movement is like a "spacer" or movement holder, and although it isn't transparent, it's translucent.

What the heck is this? It's a *luminous crystal guard* which was included as a sort of bonus to the first 100 online orders (per the below information.) It appears to have been only included with the white version, but I'm not 100% sure about this. Pretty cool little accessory, and it recalls the craze in the 1980s and 1990s where Swatch sold these crown guards. TIMEX Japan had reissued their own version of these in various colors a year or so ago, two sizes, but this is the first glowing one I've heard of.

Translucent caseback. You can see at its periphery, the black waterproofing O-ring.

Strap buckle is signed TIMEX.

Pic taken while shining light through front of watch. Partially seen is the black O-ring. The central shadow is cast by the metal movement. The model number TW2T80100, battery type, and other info is listed. 65 indicates it was manufactured in May 2019.

Strap has a sort of cross-hatched texture to it.

From the pre-order/reservation page. It seems that in Japan, pre-orders are not uncommon for limited edition items. I don't really see this as much in other markets. The online pre-order preceded general sales online, and in BEAMS shops.

Another backlit pic of JELLYFISH CAMPER. Again, note it will never look like this on your wrist! Still, I loved taking these pics and looking at them. Also, do you notice a double-image effect of numerals, and the TIMEX logo, over the movement? That's a reflection from the dial stamps, lit up by the backlight, reflecting from the metal surface of the movement. The slightly offset position of the reflection vs to the dial print, with respect to the camera view, causes this double appearance.

Watch in the presentation box. It's hard to see, but the watch strap is threaded through a clear "stage" that is elevated off from the back of the box. This stage is typical for this type of box, but it's always opaque. The designers wanted to emulate the clear features of the watch, in parts of the box itself, which is pretty cool.

I know this is machine translation, and likely in part artifactual, but I have to say that I love "bonelessness." Maybe this is why I started calling it the JELLYFISH CAMPER.

Back to the box. The outer box has TIMEX, BEAMS, and the classic Camper watch drawing, but without and a face. The design of the outer box continues on themes of clarity, skeletonization, and individual components. There is an outer plastic sleeve that slides over the box, and on the plastic sleeve is printed the watch dial, such that when the sleeve in in place, you see the complete watch. Below is a pic of the sleeve, which admittedly isn't great pic, but I hope you get the idea.

Here is the final appearance once you slide the sleeve over the box. The watch dial overlays the watch body, and it looks complete, looking 100% like a HOROLOGICAL JELLYFISH.

With natural sunlight behind it, the translucency of the whole watch is nicely shown.

What is this?! Well, I mentioned above that while this 2019 Clear Camper is the first "skeleton Camper," it is not the first skeleton watch from TIMEX. I'm not sure these necessarily are, either, but they are from *way before* 2019. They are more than thirty years old! Above from December 1987 is a model called TIMEX PUZZLE. You can see there is no dial, but the quartz movement (with plates painted in three colors!) are exposed. There is a sort of outer semi-dial or ring, but the movement is completely visible. And hands mounted on the posts, like any watch. Turning it over, there is a transparent back, showing the movement from behind. Notice the copper coils, and more. Crown post clearly shown. These are small watches, 25 mm.

Above is another PUZZLE TIMEX, with different colors. Same display back. These were for children, based on the size of the integral straps. If you want to see more on these watches, see this page.

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