1950s TIMEX Petite*, Great Britain
Hi, this Alan. Thank you for reading, and for your interest in watches. My contact info is below.
Here's a Petite* model from the 1950s, made at the Timex factories in Dundee, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dè or Dùn Dèagh). Above is the whole watch. Crystal a bit yellowed, so there are pics below with the crystal removed.
(*The watch may have been called something other than Petite in the UK, but as it is structurally identical to the Petite, I will call it that here.)
Here's a good look at the dial and hands, removed from the front bezel. dial is kind of cream colored. Not sure if it was originally white and became yellowed with time from cigarette smoke, etc, or if it was that way originally. But it looks pretty nice either way. Applied golden dial elements, golden hands, and a lovely spindle-shaped red seconds hand. Big crown! Notice how in four places, tabs in the stamped metal dial are turned back to latch on to the movement plate with tiny "tongue" extensions (not seen) at the tips of the tabs. Another way US/UK TIME made the Timex inexpensive by avoiding more complex and costly methods, screws etc.
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US TIME movement M22, with center seconds feature. This one has brass plates. Others M22 movements would have greymetal plates. MADE IN SCOTLAND stamped on the plate. You can see someone's fingerprints. Who knows if that person is still alive or dead.
The case and caseback are really integrated together, in the Petite. You can see that the movement sits in this pan-shaped case that is contiguous with the back of the watch. In the pic immediately below, you can see that the front of the watch is formed by the bezel that is contiguous with the lugs. The two pieces, front and back, simply snap together.
Millions watches using this Petite case were made over many years, some with goldtone cases. However, not all were adult watches. Virtually all of the US/UK TIME watches made for children during the 1950s and much of the 1960s (I know there are some exceptions) used the Petite case, many of which were WDP Disney Character watches. These never said TIMEX on the dial, but were 100% US/UK TIME Petites, but with the dials and straps reflecting the themes aimed at kids. In fact, considering how many of the WDP and other kids' watches seemed too have been sold, I would not be surprised if more weree sold than adult Petites.
A look at the bracelet. No clasp, but each link has internal springs, so you stretch the bracelet over your hand and onto your wrist while the spaces between the links temporarily expand. Bit of decoration to the links, those striations. Has a kind of Deco and "machine age" feeling to me, stylistically.
Stamps on the back. GREAT BRITAIN TIMEX. The Petite was never waterproof, but this one is shock-resistant.
Quite a lot of similarity between these watches. On the left is a 1950s waterproof TIMEX Marlin. Notice how every element on the Petite is a scaled-down version of the larger Marlin, with some exceptions. There is no WATERPROOF title for the non-waterproof Petite. and there are round dial dots between the arrowheads and numerals at the periphery of the Marlin dial, while the Petite has hash marks. Otherwise, really very close. I suspect these watches came out around the same time, or not far off.
One other dial feature: notice the M in TIMEX has straight sides. Tend to see this in UK made but not US TIMEX, which have outward-slanting sides to the M.
TIMEX, Dundee, Scotland.
Attractive, small watch from the earlier days of TIMEX.
Thank you for reading,
I hope you will like it.
Alan
Website: Alan's Vintage Watches
petit fours from the 1950s
