1967 TIMEX "military style" Sprite model.
May be the first TIMEX-stamped watch model with "military" appearance.
Not at all an actual military watch, but it was made during the early years of the United State's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Hi this is Alan. Thanks for your interest. My contact information is below.
This is a 1967 watch from TIMEX, a model of their Sprite series, which began in the 1960s. The crystal is scratched up a bit, and somehow dusty; many of my photos will be with the case removed.
As long as here's we've got this photo, let's start by looking at the dial and hands.So, why is this "military style?" (Oh, btw if you are a hardcore collector of true military watches, and hate when people use "military" or "military style" to describe watches that are not actual military-issued watches, believing somehow that the word military is only allowed for the watches you collect, then you should probably stop reading right here, to avoid getting further upset.) Ok, so, why military style? Well, black dial, 12/24 hour markers, white-on-black high contrast dial markings and luminous material. Many other TIMEX watches had some of these features individually/ But in combination, many would agree that this one has the military style. Furthermore, the hands share close similarity to actual military watches from WWII.
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Sadly, there is a crack in the crystal. I think it looks good on a black 16 mm NATO-type strap, but I've also seen it on a beige, which kind of tones with the luminous material, and looked pretty good.
This photo is from the repair guide. You can see the version of "Sprite" was made during three calendar years, 1966-1968, and it was model 1158. I say calendar years, as it could potentially have been made for just 14 months or so, and receive the stamps 66-68, and it's not necessarily for "36 months." But no one really knows. Notice it carries a 4-digit model number. Later watches, like the one pictured above from 1971, had five digits for model number. Notice also that the time is displayed as 9 minutes to 2, and 27 sec. More commonly (at least now) watches are displayed/drawn with the time 9 minutes after 10, and 32 seconds. This is like a mirror image of that.
Some pictures on this page, like this one, are taken with a 15x mag lens held up against my camera phone, and thus show some geometric distortion. I kind of like the effect. The luminous material at the hours, and filling the hands is a kind of creamy light-yellow color. I'm not sure if this was original, or if it was white and has acquired this color with time.
Inside the snap-on caseback, you can see inkstamp 3L67. The 67 refers to year of manufacture 1967. I believe the 3L is some kind of factory production code, but others have said that you can tell the month of manufacture from this, like there is a code booklet or something that could tell you. But I've never seen any proof of this, and also why be straightforward with the year, but cryptic with the month. JA, AU, AP etc could easily tell us the month, if they wanted to. So I think these are other codes which are now lost to history.
CASE FRANCE TIMEX.
Dial says WATERPROOF. I'm not sure when the transition was to WATER RESISTANT, but I don't have any 1970s TIMEX with WATERPROOF on the dial, so maybe 1969 or so. The case is chrome plated base metal, and is about 32 mm across.
May be hard to see in this pic, but in the groove at the edge of the caseback, there is a black rubber ring lodged in that groove. This helps with water seal, for the water resistance feature.
Another view, angled, of the dial/hands with the cracked crystal and case removed. I'm very pleased that the luminous material is intact. One some of these, much has fallen out from the hands. I love the color, too.
But why do I think this may be the "first TIMEX-stamped watch with decidedly military styling?" First, I'll emphasize I'm strictly speaking of watches with TIMEX on the dia. Not Ingersoll, Waterbury or other brands in the corporate succession of what is now TIMEX GROUP, but very specifically a "TIMEX" watch (a brand of US TIME, that began in 1950). Well, I can't think of any earlier TIMEX that fits ticks off enough military boxes to really qualify, but maybe I just haven't seen it.
Some of the 1950s Marlin models have what some people (mostly ebay sellers) have called "military" appearance, but what I'd characterize more as "clean, easy reading institutional clock appearance." There is *one* 1950s Marlin that has a black dial that I once called a "Navy" TIMEX (because that is what the ebay seller called it, and I perpetuated the lie) but it is actually a watch for the Boy Scouts branch called the Explorer Sea Scouts. It's a pretty cool watch, and I'll show a picture below.
Here is that watch, quite striking appearance. I had this many years ago, but sadly I sold it in a hasty and poorly thought-out watch clearance. I guess it also looks sort of "military," doesn't it? I may need to revise my pitch. Anyway, deep black dial, more shiny and "lacquered" looking than the matte dial1967 Sprite, pale green luminous lettering for the hours (in a type of lettering I call macaroni,) nice red seconds hand (not really seen on real military watches) and a kind of light beige lume to the hands.
Below is part of an ad that shows it being called Explorer, being sold along with other scouting watches. This watch is from 1954. Here is a link to my watch, before I sold it.
Much more mag view of the drawing in the repair guide. Looks like it came with a black strap, probably leather.
Another 15x loupe view, with distortion. Good look at the tidy little blobs of lume at the hours. Model 1158, movement 24, 1967.
The first "regular" troops from the United States in Vietnam were a group of 3,500 Marines, the 9th US Marine Expeditionary Force, who entered the city of Da Nang, Vietnam by amphibious landing in March 8th, 1965. Prior to that time, there were US military and/or government officials in Vietnam, and I believe there may have been limited air combat forces just prior to the Marines, but they represented the first officially acknowledged "on the ground" US combat forces in Vietnam. (This photo is not from that initial landing, but was from one a month later, April 1965. [Photo AP]).
This watch (mine from 1967) was made 1966-1968, squarely in the thick of the early US involvement in the Vietnam war, and therefore has a certain kind of "vibe," to me.
"Army nurse 2nd Lieutenant Roberta 'Bertie' Steele in South Vietnam, on February 9, 1966." Photo, Eddie Adams/AP.
