TIMEX Waterbury HODINKEE Dive-Style, Limited Edition, November 2021
Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading, and for your interest in these reviews. My contact info is at the bottom.
Here is a really nice watch from TIMEX, a collaboration with HODINKEE. It is their second watch together, the first being the Q TIMEX HODINKEE, October 2020. As you can see, the watch has features that suggest diving style watches, though the dial borrows from an all-time classic of modern watchmaking, resulting in a watch that is both sporty and classy, vintage and modern, all at once
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Some details about the watch:
40 mm steel case
Non-display back (steel)
Aluminum bezel, unidirectional
Mineral glass
Miyota automatic movement (8215)
100 meter water resistance
Super-LumiNova dial and hands
Leather strap
Here's a nice look at the watch. The bezel insert has a nice bevel, and slopes down and out and has a small luminous pip at the triangle. I always enjoy a red seconds hand, and this one is "drenched in a bold red hue." Notice that just above the WATERBURY there is (barely seen) HODINKEE signage, but *in black* as a kind of stealth or secret logo.
To be clear, this is not a diving watch, and HODINKEE states as much, right on their sales page. At 100 meters water, a pull-push crown (not screw down) and not being certified by the ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, in Geneva. (ISO is said not to be an acronym, but is derives from the Greek isos, meaning equal.)
But nevermind about the ISO, this is one tough watch that you can go swimming with and enjoy wearing in most situations that most of us will encounter in regular life. If you want to dwell deep in the sea, you can always get yourself a SeaDweller, but this "desk diver" (haha, as HODINKEE calls it) is perfectly fine for most of life's urban and non-urban adventures.
Why am I suddenly showing you a photo of a 1960s Rolex Explorer ref 1016? Because, come on! Look at the Explorer dial, and then look at the HODINKEE! Homage upon homage (and oh I approve). The "3-6-9" with triangle at 12, and long rectangles at the others, is straight from the Explorer, and I cannot be more happy about that.
If you then also consider the luminous pip and triangle on the HODINKEE's bezel insert as an iconic feature of the Rolex Submariner (a 5513 model is pictured below,) then you have some of the design heritage of two of the most important watches of the last half of the 20th century, right in one watch. Just brilliant.
(In fact, if you want to see more about the watch that led to the Submariner, and the "tool watch" genre, scroll to the bottom to see a bit about the Rolex Turn-O-Graph, from 1954.)
Super-LumNova, a strontium-based "lume" is brighter than zinc-based lumes.
A good look at the angled lugs and the caseback. Six wrench slots are present, and there is a kind of "coin edge" pattern just inside of that. The back has absolutely no markings. I have never engraved anything on a watch, and I just might have something engraved on this!
Can we talk about this dial? Rather than a glossy or matte dial, they choose to give this dial a textured, almost "granular" surface. Very rebellious. It is distinctive, and catches light, without being "shiny." Also, here is a good look at the raised hour numerals and markings. You can also see the bevel and the slope of the bezel insert.
Good look at the bezel edge, and case. Bezel is aluminum.
Above and below, stock photos from Miyota of the front and back of their 21J auto movement, cal. 8215. Notice this is a date movement, and this Timex is a non-date watch. The crown/stem does have three positions. Fully in for wearing. Fully out for setting time. And a third intermediate position for rapid advance of the date wheel. This has been called by some a "ghost date" watch, where a date movement is used, but the wheel is hidden because no date window was created. There will also be the "third" crown position. Kind of funny that there's a date wheel underneath, dutifully turning as it's supposed to, but no one can see it!
Back of the strap emobssed TIMEX and S.B. Foot Tanning Co., of Red Wing, MN.
Circular machined caseback. Notice also the quick-release spring bars.
Crown is signed with the Waterbury logo.
The HODINKEE logo is very stealth. Black, like the dial, and slightly raised around the granular dial surface. WATERBURY is similarly raised, but painted white.
We are back to Rolex, again? Yes we are. Because sometimes I think it is important to talk about legacy of a watch. And before anyone gets upset, no, of course I am not comparing a Rolex watch to a Timex watch in terms of chronometer movement, fineness of material and workmanship, "exclusivity" or any of that. Relax. But I am looking back 60+ years to what is very likely the origin of the "tool watch," and how some of the DNA from those origins lives on in this and other tool watches.
The TIMEX x HODINKEE Waterbury watch describes itself as a tool watch, which I think is accurate as the term is used. And if you search "tool watch" you will thousands and thousands of references. Why? Because what better way to elevate your watch above "jewelry," to take it out of the realm of style and other affectations, than to invest it with qualities of "tool-ness."
Well, here is where it all began, with two watches from Rolex. The Explorer and the Turn-O-Graph. Both were developed in the early 1950s, and were revolutionary in the history of watches.
image from phillips.com
The Rolex Turn-O-Graph, pictured above was not a dive watch. Its primary purpose seemed to be facilitating above-water timing. It was the first commercially available watch from Rolex with a rotating bezel, and therefore preceded the Submariner.
From the phillips.com article:
The Turn-O-Graph, when originally launched by Rolex in 1953, was by all measures revolutionary in the history of watchmaking and of watch design. Its main feature, a rotatable bezel, was certainly a disruptive innovation—creating an all-new market for what was then an unheard of genre—the tool watch.
The very first reference, the 6202, was the first series produced wristwatch to feature a rotating bezel. It was designed to measure and record time "as a reminder of times past, for phone calls, conferences, timing, parking, and countless other ways," as Rolex’s original advertising explained.
Reference 6202 can be considered the first Rolex tool watch ever produced in series. With its rotating bezel calibrated to 60 units, the ground-breaking "Turn- O-Graph" can be considered the starting point of Rolex’s 60-plus years of successful sport watches
"For timing every possible activity..."
Turn-O-Graph ad, in Italiian
The Turn-O-Graph was said to be good for baking a cake, timing international phone calls, motorsports, or running a regatta.
Not a Turn-O-Graph, but my 1960s Rolex Submariner ref. 5513.
The HODINKEE TIMEX shown alongside my 1960s Rolex Explorer ref. 1016.
The layout with the "3-6-9" numerals and triangle at 12, along with long rectangular marks for the others is straight from the Explorer dial.
And the rotating bezel with the triangle and luminous dot, borrows its heritage from the Turn-O-Graph, and the later Submariner.
Not sure when this ad was from, but the watch and bracelet was only $190!
TIMEX Waterbury HODINKEE Dive-Style, Limited Edition, November 2021, automatic, 40 mm.
Both sporty and dressy, modern and vintage, a "tool watch" that borrows elements from watchmaking's defining pieces that created the archetype.
This will be a keeper.
