Timex x Coca-Cola T-80 Digital Watch UNITY COLLECTION, 34 mm, August 2021.
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Here is a super colorful and fun Timex made in collaboration with Coca-Cola, in celebration of 50 years of an iconic television commercial and song. The watch is part of a UNITY COLLECTION, along with two other Timex watches in the Timex capsule collection. Many other brands collaborated with Coca-Cola, including a pretty awesome refrigerator (see below).
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This article will include information about the watch, of course, as well as the very nice box and packaging, the 1971 television commercial and song, the Sixties and Seventies, and more. As often in my reviews, the order may jump around a bit, as I tend to write as I think, but I hope it is clear and enjoyable to read.
Photograph of the watch, on the back of the box, along with model number.
In 1971, Coca-Cola recorded and released a television commercial titled "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke," filmed on a hilltop outside of Rome with a staggering budget (at that time) of $250,000. The singers were people of many nationalities, recruited from various embassies and schools in and around Rome.
The ad was conceptualized in an airport in Ireland, after a flight to London was diverted because of fog, and tired and frustrated passengers waiting for the flight to resume started bonding with each other over bottles of Coke. Here is a kind of capsule summary origins, production, and legacy of the ad, worth a read if you're interested.
I found it a bit funny that the original plan was to cast hundreds of British schoolchildren, and 65 headmasters to sing while standing along the white cliffs of Dover, but that because of of "three days of continuous rain," the plan fell through. Who knows what the legacy may have been, had the original plan worked out?
I love this watch, and I have to say I love the box almost as much as the watch! (lots more on the box).
The watch uses the Timex T-80 as a base model, upon which the custom bezel and caseback are designed. As far as I can tell, the T-80 is based on a 1990s Timex LCD called the 555.
The design on the bezel, also repeated in the box, as well as Timex promotional materials is also found on other non-watch products that Coca-Cola has collaborated to produce, and appears to be a Coco-Cola design creation.
Above, message on the T-80 box. Coca-Cola has also written, on its web page:
"Like offering to buy someone a Coke, the act of asking for the time is a meaningful gesture -- a way of bridging differences, striking up good conversation, and finding community. Detailed with nostalgic 70s-inspired designs that evoke the spirit of unity, the timepieces in this capsule are a cheerful reminder to embrace opportunities for connection and move through the world with compassion.
Retro illustrations bring whimsy to this digital T80. This timepiece plays the iconic "Hilltop" commercial: "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing(in Perfect Harmony)", to help celebrate a timeless message of love and harmony."
Custom engraving on the steel caseback for the UNITY COLLECTION. The 92 indicates that this watch was manufactured August 2021. The M555... Is it "Model 555," maybe an homage to the 1990s digital model 555 which I believe the T-80 derives from?
The box is a an elongated "rectangular cuboid" shape, which has an outer sleeve. On the inside of this sleeve are the art designs that grace the watch face.
The T-80 has all the features you would expect from a multi-functional digital LCD, including Indiglo backlight. Steel bracelet with adjustable clasp for perfect fit. The case looks steel, but it's actually a resin-based body, over which chrome or some other shiny metallic plating has been applied.
My watch, above.
Timex promo pic, Image by Timex.
I was not kidding, the box is CRAZY fun. It's actually five long rectangular panels that fold together to create the inner watch "box" inside the sleeve. Above, fully opened up, with the cutouts for the watch. Below, as it appears when you slide out the sleeve. I did realize this at first, and thought the colored edges in the pic below were decorative. I wasn't aware at first they were part of the above panels.
The watch PLAYS A SONG. Like the T-80 PAC-MAN, this plays short song, in this case a short snippet from the tune of "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke." Click the above Youtube to hear the tune.
(Vintage ad copy, found on the web.)
I find this a really beautiful T-80. The colors, the sharpness, the "lush" design, all the love, all the flower-power stuff, everything. But is it meaningful? Does it go beyond "being just a watch?" More on that below, but spoiler alert: I think yes.
Part of the fold-out box has two panels with very good diagram drawings showing various functions of the T-80. I don't remember this from the PAC-MAN. and it's a welcome feature. There's a QR code, lower right, to pull up more information.
Special boxes and packaging add to the cost of the watch, but the cost of this T-80 is quite reasonable. Not every watch gets the special treatment, but I'm glad Timex and Coca-Cola went with it, as it is super fun and makes the watches that much more collectible.
Just a gif (from Timex) showing all three watches in the collection. The other two are a Timex Standard and a Q Timex.
Did I mention a Coca-Cola REFRIGERATOR, up above? Yes, there is one. As part of the UNITY COLLECTION, Coca-Cola partnered with about 25 brands, including SMEG, an appliance maker based in Italy. In 1997, they introduced a retro-style refrigerator, the FAB28, having a sort of Fifties look about it, usually in solid colors, with a few special editions. This is one of them, "clad in unique Coca-Cola-inspired artwork that embodies the spirit of inclusiveness, diversity, and optimism that the Harmony commercial is remembered for." (Image from the SMEG USA site).
So, what's the meaning behind the watch, the 50 year commemoration of the commercial, and the UNITY COLLECTION. Are these mostly about marketing and selling products, or is it about promotion of ideals and awareness that may be of some ultimate benefit to the world? I ask the question, can it be both? Does selling a product and creating some benefit to the community need to be mutually exclusive?
I mean, it goes without saying that Coca-Cola and Timex are corporations that only exist because they market and sell products and earn money to continue the operations. And the most cynical take could be that these corporation are exploiting a 50 year time point as a reason to sell more products. I'd like to say, sure, of course they want to sell products. And finding either time points, or other links or associations with events or anniversaries can create an inspiration for a line of products tied to those events. But this is, essentially, the history of marketing and advertising -- finding a reference that resonates with your audience, one that maybe even creates aspiration, and market the product to them. Maybe that reference is a car that makes owning it feel like you are a rich man? Maybe it's a watch that makes you feel somehow connected to a historical movement toward peace, love and harmony, that might inform how you live your life in the 21st century? (continued below)
Let's go back a bit and revisit July, 1971, when the commercial was released. This was literally at the exact midpoint of the time-frame between the Summer of Love, and when Richard Nixon resigned from office. It was a period characterized by a combination of unrest as well as by social changes, and hope, a time when messages of peace, love, and harmony found resonance with many people not just in the US but throughout the world.
It may be hard to imagine that, now, given the current state of things. But fifty years ago, the US was a vastly different place. "The Sixties," ushered in multiple and far-reaching cultural shifts, which are of course far beyond the scope of this article. But the influence of those shifts were certainly powerful and influential in 1971. With the ongoing Vietnam War and several years of anti-war movements (Kent State was just a year earlier,) the ongoing push for civil rights, the continued efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment -- along with far more that I am not including here -- the country and the world were totally ready for the messages of the Hilltop Commercial. (continued below).
(On the back of the box).
So, in the year 2021, what's it mean, what's the relevance? I would say, well, when is it not a good time to promote messages that now, in addition to "peace, love, and harmony," emphasize "warmth, optimism, diversity, hope, tolerance, unity, bridging differences, embodying the spirit of inclusiveness, compassion, embracing connection," and more in the products and promotions. The US right now, and the much of the world at large needs a lot of healing, I'd say. Franky, I don't think these messages could come at a better time. So, selling bottles of Coke and Timex watches? Sure. Promoting messages the world is sore in need of right now? Sure.
The Venn diagram can have as much overlap as you are willing to let it have.
And what the heck, why not have a listen to Nick Lowe's 1974 "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love And Understanding," and a subsequent version by Elvis Costello four years later. Maybe Nick saw the Hilltop Commercial? I mean, who didn't.
At the end of the commercial, a helicopter crew films the singers on the hill in the countryside outside of Rome.
UNITY COLLECTION TIMEX X COCA-COLA T-80 DIGITAL WATCH. Attractive and colorful design. Fun. Carries with it a lot of history, and maybe inspires optimism in our present and future, and encourages a desire to be better.
