Timex Corporation
Encyclopedia
Timex Group USA, Inc. a subsidiary of Timex Group B.V.
and its US headquarters, is based in Middlebury, Connecticut
. The company is the current day successor to the Waterbury Clock Company, founded in 1854 in nearby Waterbury, Connecticut
.
industry, with scores of companies located in Connecticut's Naugatuck Valley
, was producing millions of clocks, earning the region the nickname, "Switzerland of America". The Waterbury Clock Company was one of the largest producers for both domestic sales and export, primarily to Europe. Today its successor, Timex Group USA, Inc. is the only remaining watch company in the region.
elephant. The Jumbo was put on the market in New York City on a trial basis catching the attention of Robert H. Ingersoll, a salesman and eventual marketing pioneer. During the turn of the century, Waterbury Clock Company produced millions of pocket watches for the newly created partnership of Robert and his brother Charles, Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro.
, under their own brand name. In 1896, Ingersoll introduced the Ingersoll Yankee, a dollar pocket watch
supplied by Waterbury Clock Company. These watches gained such great popularity that they became known as "the watch that made the dollar famous."
Due to poor sales techniques, where jobbers and salesmen gave away much of the Waterbury Watch products as loss-leaders with little regard to the company's future – thereby cheapening the products' perceived value – Waterbury Watch quickly fell into bankruptcy. In a last attempt to salvage the company, Waterbury Watch began to produce higher-end watch models which only created more demand on a workforce unable to keep up with the complexity of the new watches using several hundred parts. The company was finally reorganized as the New England Watch Company in 1898 as its London sales office was placed into liquidation. The company continued to focus on high-priced watch models and eventually fell into receivership, discontinuing business in July 1912. Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro. bought the Waterbury plant and began manufacturing Ingersoll Watches there in 1914.
to become military-issue wristwatches – lugs were added for a canvas strap, the crown was repositioned to 3 o'clock, hands and numbers were made luminescent for nighttime readability – thus making one of the first wrist watches.
In 1922, Waterbury Clock Company purchased the Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro.
for $1,500,000 which had gone bankrupt the previous year due to the post-war recession, thereby inheriting all of Ingersoll's and Waterbury Watch's assets and facilities. Unable to deliver on Ingersoll's guarantee of quality in Europe due to the Great Depression, Waterbury Clock sold the London-based Ingersoll, Ltd. to its Board of Directors in 1930, making it a wholly British-owned enterprise. The "powerful Ingersoll brand name" was continued in the United States by Waterbury Clock into the 1950s. No longer part of Waterbury Clock Company, Ingersoll Ltd. continued to produce the Ingersoll watch brand independently for the European and other international markets.
Following the Great Depression and a period of hardship for the company, Waterbury Clock Company regained its identity in the consumer market. In 1930, a license agreement was reached with Walt Disney
, resulting in the production of the famous Mickey Mouse
watches and clocks under the Ingersoll brand name. The new Mickey Mouse
timepieces were introduced to the public at the Chicago World's Fair in June 1933
and quickly became the company's first million dollar line saving it from financial disaster.
In 1940, Thomas Olsen
(owner and operator of Fred. Olsen Shipping Co.
) and Joakim Lehmkuhl
fled Norway with their families because of the Nazi invasion. Eventually they came to the United States seeking investments to assist in the war effort. In 1941, Olsen and Lehmkuhl purchased controlling interest in Waterbury Clock Company, Thomas Olsen became Chairman. Though the company had fallen on hard times during the Great Depression it still had the manufacturing capability to make large numbers of timing devices. Mr. Lehmkuhl, who had studied business and engineering at Harvard and MIT, was appointed President by Olsen and, under his direction, the company became the largest producer of fuse timers for precision defense products in the United States. A new concrete plant was built in nearby Middlebury, CT in 88 days in 1942 for the high-volume production of precision timers. In August 1943, the Army-Navy 'E' Award
for excellence was awarded by the United States Under-Secretary of War to Waterbury Clock Company for the "Anglo-American fuse". As a result of this success shareholders in the following December voted to rename the company to United States Time Corporation.
, as a spokesperson for live torture tests on television with the tag line, "Timex – Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking" – a well-recognized campaign in advertising history. These commercials were developed by Hirshon Garfield as elaborations on tests originated by United States Time Corporation salesmen. The commercials included high-divers, water skiers, a dolphin, dishwashers, jackhammers, paint mixers and the propeller of an outboard motor, all torturing a Timex watch.
Despite resistance from jewelers because of the low 50% markup, consumer demand increased and new distribution channels were opened to include department stores, cigar stands, drug stores and a host of other mass market outlets. By 1962, the Timex brand held the number one market share position in the United States where one out of every three watches sold was a Timex. Foreign markets were added with company sales offices in Canada, Mexico, France, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal as well as with distributors in about twenty other countries. Plants were built in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Edwin H. Land
, co-founder of Polaroid Corporation
, contacted United States Time Corporation in 1948 in search of a manufacturer for his cameras. A strong relationship was forged between the companies in 1950 resulting in United States Time becoming the exclusive manufacturer of all Polaroid cameras worldwide through the 1970s, totaling more than 44 million cameras.
In recognition of the Timex brand's worldwide success, United States Time Corporation was renamed Timex Corporation on July 1, 1969.
business, selling such computers as the Timex Sinclair 1000
and succeeding machines, modeled on the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum
. In 1984 after declining sales, the company decided not to compete in the market any longer.
Timex Corporation transformed itself again in the mid-1980s as it abandoned its development of various consumer products and refocused efforts specifically on timepieces. Product quality and fashionable design became essential to success in the mass market. Although Timex had a solid reputation for durable products, increased efforts were put behind quality improvement. Longer battery life, more durable gold plating, greater accuracy and more water resistant styles were some of the many improvements that were implemented. New quartz analog movements were created using fewer components, reducing overall production time and costs. Top athletes assisted in the design of sports watches for specific sports which led to the introduction of the Ironman Triathlon
in 1986. Named for the Hawaiian triathlon the company had sponsored since 1984, the Ironman Triathlon became the most successful Timex watch in the post-mechanical watch era. Within its first year, Timex Ironman became the best-selling watch in the United States, and the world's largest selling sport watch for the next decade.
Following on the success of the Ironman Triathlon line, Timex introduced the Indiglo night light during the Christmas shopping season in 1992. By January 1993 Indiglo had made headlines as a result of the bombing of the World Trade Center
in which an office worker wearing a Timex with an Indiglo night light used its light to guide a group of evacuees down 40 dark flights of stairs. Sales immediately took off leading to an increase in Timex's American market share.
Timex Corporation acquired Callanen International, the producer of Guess? Watches, in 1991 as part of its "multi-brand strategy". Timex and Disney reunited in 1993 to produce a new line of character watches called Disney Classics Collection. In 1994, Timex acquired the Nautica Watches license and introduced Timex Data Link
. The Data Link PDA-type watch could receive contact and scheduling information from a sequence in a computer monitor's light using software developed with Microsoft
. 1997 saw the introduction of the successful Timex Expedition brand, designed for rugged outdoor sports. Timex and Motorola
introduced Beepwear in 1998, a watch with an integrated pager.
The new millennium led to further growth of Timex Corporation and its parent, Timex Group B.V., by way of brand acquisition, brand introduction and licensing partnerships. In 2000, Timex Corporation purchased the French fashion watch brand Opex. Under its Callanen subsidiary, Timex acquired the watch license for urban fashion designer Marc Ecko in 2002.
The company entered the luxury market in 2005 when Timex's parent company acquired Swiss-based Vertime SA. Vertime is responsible for the design, manufacturing and distribution of Swiss-Made watches and jewelry for the Versace and Versus brands.
Timex launched a new brand In 2006 called TX, marketed around innovative technology and affordable luxury. During the same year, Timex Group B.V. acquired the ultra-luxury hand-made Swiss brand Vincent Bérard.
In 2007, Timex Group B.V. established Sequel AG as a separate company devoted to the design, manufacturing and distribution of the Guess? and the Swiss-Made Gc watch brands. The Sequel AG business is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. Timex Group B.V. purchased the Italian design studio Giorgio Galli Design Lab in 2007.
enabled watches, heart rate monitor
exercise watches and similar high tech
devices.
In 2008, Timex Group USA signed a four-year agreement making Timex the first official timekeeper of the ING New York City Marathon
. Meanwhile, parent company Timex Group B.V. launched two new Swiss-Made luxury watch brands – Salvatore Ferragamo Timepieces and Valentino Timeless – under the Timex Group Luxury Watches business.
As the year closed, construction commenced on the second-largest ground mounted solar array in the northeastern United States at Timex Group USA's Middlebury, CT headquarters. The 800-panel solar array was inaugurated on February 5, 2009 during a press event held at the headquarters. A few months later Timex Group USA purchased ownership of the Marc Ecko watch trademark it had licensed since 2002. At the same time, the Callanen International business unit merged with the Timex Business Unit bringing the Timex, Opex, TX, Nautica and Marc Ecko brands all under one house.
In an agreement announced on June 16, 2009, Timex Group USA became an official sponsor of the NFL's
New York Giants
new headquarters and practice facility called the Timex Performance Center. Further details of the sponsorship include Timex being an official equipment provider to the Giants and working closely with the team to develop new products.
In honor of Timex's 50th anniversary, the company re-released their classic Timex 80 watch. The iconic retro design of this basic digital watch made it a hit with both fashion lovers and retro watch enthusiasts, and the range has since expanded to jumbo sizes, silver and gold metallic finishes and calculator watches.
, Opex, TX, Nautica, Marc Eckō
), Timex Group Luxury Watches (Valentino
, Salvatore Ferragamo
), Sequel (Guess, Gc), Vertime (Versace, Versus), Vincent Bérard and Giorgio Galli Design Lab. Today, Timex Group B.V.'s products are manufactured in the Far East and in Switzerland, often based on technology that continues to be developed in the United States and in Germany. The group has operations in a number of countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Timex Group
Timex Group B.V., or Timex Group, is a Dutch holding company headquartered in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, and the corporate parent of several watchmaking companies around the globe including Timex Group USA, Inc., TMX Philippines, Inc., and Timex Group India Ltd...
and its US headquarters, is based in Middlebury, Connecticut
Middlebury, Connecticut
Middlebury is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,451 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....
. The company is the current day successor to the Waterbury Clock Company, founded in 1854 in nearby Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
.
Waterbury Clock Company (1854–1944)
In 1854 Waterbury, CT-based brass manufacturer Benedict & Burnham created Waterbury Clock Company to manufacture clocks using brass wheels and gears. Waterbury Clock Company was legally incorporated on March 27, 1857 as an independent business with $60,000 in capital. The American clockAmerican clock
The term American clock was used in the Victorian era and afterward to refer to a particular style of clock design followed by the American clockmakers of the day...
industry, with scores of companies located in Connecticut's Naugatuck Valley
Naugatuck River Valley
The Naugatuck River Valley refers to the watershed area of the Naugatuck River in the western part of Connecticut. The Naugatuck Valley straddles parts of Litchfield County, New Haven, and Fairfield counties. The Route 8 corridor and Waterbury Branch of the Metro-North railroad line run along the...
, was producing millions of clocks, earning the region the nickname, "Switzerland of America". The Waterbury Clock Company was one of the largest producers for both domestic sales and export, primarily to Europe. Today its successor, Timex Group USA, Inc. is the only remaining watch company in the region.
Ingersoll Watch Company
Originally, the company produced clocks as less expensive alternatives to the high-end European counterparts of the time. In 1887 the company began experimenting with its product line leading to the creation of the large Jumbo pocket watch invented by Archibald Bannatyne – named after the famous P. T. BarnumP. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....
elephant. The Jumbo was put on the market in New York City on a trial basis catching the attention of Robert H. Ingersoll, a salesman and eventual marketing pioneer. During the turn of the century, Waterbury Clock Company produced millions of pocket watches for the newly created partnership of Robert and his brother Charles, Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro.
Ingersoll Watch Company
The Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a mail order business started in New York City in 1882 by 21-year-old Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother Charles Henry. The company initially sold low-cost items such as rubber stamps...
, under their own brand name. In 1896, Ingersoll introduced the Ingersoll Yankee, a dollar pocket watch
Dollar watch
A dollar watch was a pocket watch or later, a wristwatch, that sold for about one dollar.The sale of such watches began in 1892 by the watchmakers Ingersoll Watch Company, Waterbury Clock Company, and New Haven. Later, Western Clock in 1899 and the E. Ingraham Company also began manufacturing them...
supplied by Waterbury Clock Company. These watches gained such great popularity that they became known as "the watch that made the dollar famous."
Waterbury Watch Company
In 1877, a new prototype was introduced to Benedict and Burnham for an inexpensive pocketwatch made of 58 parts, mostly made of punched sheet brass. They immediately set aside an unused portion of their machine shop and began producing the Long Wind at a rate of 200 per day by 1878. The department quickly outgrew its space in the plant, so with a capital of $400,000 Waterbury Clock's sister company Waterbury Watch Company was incorporated by Benedict & Burnham in 1880 to manufacture and sell inexpensive watches and other timepieces. Waterbury Watch started out very successfully in its early days, employing hundreds of women for their "slender fingers" and "delicate manipulation," having become the largest volume producer of watches in the world by 1888.Due to poor sales techniques, where jobbers and salesmen gave away much of the Waterbury Watch products as loss-leaders with little regard to the company's future – thereby cheapening the products' perceived value – Waterbury Watch quickly fell into bankruptcy. In a last attempt to salvage the company, Waterbury Watch began to produce higher-end watch models which only created more demand on a workforce unable to keep up with the complexity of the new watches using several hundred parts. The company was finally reorganized as the New England Watch Company in 1898 as its London sales office was placed into liquidation. The company continued to focus on high-priced watch models and eventually fell into receivership, discontinuing business in July 1912. Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro. bought the Waterbury plant and began manufacturing Ingersoll Watches there in 1914.
Advent of the wristwatch
With the beginning of World War I there were new demands for timepiece design. Artillery gunners needed an easy way to calculate and read time while still being able to work the guns. The Waterbury Clock Company met this need by modifying the small Ingersoll ladies' Midget pocket watchPocket watch
A pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popular after World War I during which a transitional design,...
to become military-issue wristwatches – lugs were added for a canvas strap, the crown was repositioned to 3 o'clock, hands and numbers were made luminescent for nighttime readability – thus making one of the first wrist watches.
In 1922, Waterbury Clock Company purchased the Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro.
Ingersoll Watch Company
The Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a mail order business started in New York City in 1882 by 21-year-old Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother Charles Henry. The company initially sold low-cost items such as rubber stamps...
for $1,500,000 which had gone bankrupt the previous year due to the post-war recession, thereby inheriting all of Ingersoll's and Waterbury Watch's assets and facilities. Unable to deliver on Ingersoll's guarantee of quality in Europe due to the Great Depression, Waterbury Clock sold the London-based Ingersoll, Ltd. to its Board of Directors in 1930, making it a wholly British-owned enterprise. The "powerful Ingersoll brand name" was continued in the United States by Waterbury Clock into the 1950s. No longer part of Waterbury Clock Company, Ingersoll Ltd. continued to produce the Ingersoll watch brand independently for the European and other international markets.
Following the Great Depression and a period of hardship for the company, Waterbury Clock Company regained its identity in the consumer market. In 1930, a license agreement was reached with Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, resulting in the production of the famous Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
watches and clocks under the Ingersoll brand name. The new Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
timepieces were introduced to the public at the Chicago World's Fair in June 1933
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
and quickly became the company's first million dollar line saving it from financial disaster.
In 1940, Thomas Olsen
Thomas Fredrik Olsen
Thomas Fredrik Olsen was a Norwegian ship-owner. Son of Fredrik Olsen and born in Hvitsten, he worked in the family company Fred. Olsen & Co. from 1920. He has held a board position in a range of companies, including Det Norske Luftfartselskap and Scandinavian Airlines System. He is the father of...
(owner and operator of Fred. Olsen Shipping Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co. is a large shipping company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was founded by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today it is the holding company that controls the Olsen family's interest through Bonheur and Ganger Rolf.-History:...
) and Joakim Lehmkuhl
Joakim Lehmkuhl
Joakim Lehmkuhl was a Norwegian engineer, industrialist and politician. He was a co-founder of the organization Fedrelandslaget, and chaired the organization from 1925 to 1939. He was chairman of the board of the newspaper Tidens Tegn from 1936 to 1940. He fled to the United States in 1940...
fled Norway with their families because of the Nazi invasion. Eventually they came to the United States seeking investments to assist in the war effort. In 1941, Olsen and Lehmkuhl purchased controlling interest in Waterbury Clock Company, Thomas Olsen became Chairman. Though the company had fallen on hard times during the Great Depression it still had the manufacturing capability to make large numbers of timing devices. Mr. Lehmkuhl, who had studied business and engineering at Harvard and MIT, was appointed President by Olsen and, under his direction, the company became the largest producer of fuse timers for precision defense products in the United States. A new concrete plant was built in nearby Middlebury, CT in 88 days in 1942 for the high-volume production of precision timers. In August 1943, the Army-Navy 'E' Award
Army-Navy ‘E’ Award
The Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to a company during World War II for excellence in production of war equipment. The award was also known as the Army-Navy Production Award. The award would consist of a pennant for the plant and emblems for all employees in the plant at the time the...
for excellence was awarded by the United States Under-Secretary of War to Waterbury Clock Company for the "Anglo-American fuse". As a result of this success shareholders in the following December voted to rename the company to United States Time Corporation.
United States Time Corporation (1944–1969)
Following the end of the Korean War, sales declined because of diminishing defense orders. United States Time Corporation President Lehmkuhl was convinced that an inexpensive watch that was both accurate and durable would be a marketing success. He felt that low cost could be accomplished through the combination of automation, precision tooling techniques used in making fuse timers, and a simpler design than that of higher-priced Swiss watches. Durability was accomplished through a new hard alloy, Armalloy, developed through wartime research. Armalloy was used to produce long wearing bearings, replacing the expensive jewels traditionally used in a watch's movement. These innovations led to the eventual public debut of the Timex brand in 1950, though the name was first used on a small trial shipment of nurses' watches in 1945. The X suffix was used to "convey U.S. Time's technological expertise and innovation".Slogan: It takes a licking and keeps on ticking
The new watch movement design faced resistance from traditional jewelers. Lehmkuhl made two more decisions that proved pivotal to the company's long-term success. The company would go on to, or continue to pursue innovative marketing programs and develop new channels of distribution. A marketing decision was made to use the most credible newsman in the United States at that time, John Cameron SwayzeJohn Cameron Swayze
John Cameron Swayze was a popular news commentator and game show panelist in the United States during the 1950s.- Early life :...
, as a spokesperson for live torture tests on television with the tag line, "Timex – Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking" – a well-recognized campaign in advertising history. These commercials were developed by Hirshon Garfield as elaborations on tests originated by United States Time Corporation salesmen. The commercials included high-divers, water skiers, a dolphin, dishwashers, jackhammers, paint mixers and the propeller of an outboard motor, all torturing a Timex watch.
Despite resistance from jewelers because of the low 50% markup, consumer demand increased and new distribution channels were opened to include department stores, cigar stands, drug stores and a host of other mass market outlets. By 1962, the Timex brand held the number one market share position in the United States where one out of every three watches sold was a Timex. Foreign markets were added with company sales offices in Canada, Mexico, France, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal as well as with distributors in about twenty other countries. Plants were built in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Edwin H. Land
Edwin H. Land
Edwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...
, co-founder of Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
, contacted United States Time Corporation in 1948 in search of a manufacturer for his cameras. A strong relationship was forged between the companies in 1950 resulting in United States Time becoming the exclusive manufacturer of all Polaroid cameras worldwide through the 1970s, totaling more than 44 million cameras.
In recognition of the Timex brand's worldwide success, United States Time Corporation was renamed Timex Corporation on July 1, 1969.
Timex Corporation (1969–2008)
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the American watch and clock industry was devastated by the arrival of cheap mechanical watches from the Far East, as well as the development of digital quartz watches pioneered by Japanese companies. Lehmkuhl retired in 1973 with no clear successor. Polaroid ended its contract with Timex in 1975 resulting in a layoff of 2,000 employees. New technology, in the form of electronic digital watches and quartz analog watches, was developing very rapidly, making Timex's mechanical watchmaking production facilities obsolete. Timex closed and consolidated worldwide operations, cutting the 30,000 employee workforce to 6,000. New competition, including Japanese companies, low-cost Hong Kong producers and large American companies such as Gillette, Texas Instruments and National Semi-Conductor were aggressively entering the business. The Disney license had expired and John Cameron Swayze retired from his role as spokesperson. The subcontracting business was rebuilt with new customers such as IBM, Hugin-Sweda and General Electric. In a joint venture with Sinclair Research Ltd., the company entered the home computerHome computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
business, selling such computers as the Timex Sinclair 1000
Timex Sinclair 1000
The Timex Sinclair 1000 was the first computer produced by Timex Sinclair, a joint-venture between Timex Corporation and Sinclair Research. It was launched in July 1982....
and succeeding machines, modeled on the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
. In 1984 after declining sales, the company decided not to compete in the market any longer.
Timex Corporation transformed itself again in the mid-1980s as it abandoned its development of various consumer products and refocused efforts specifically on timepieces. Product quality and fashionable design became essential to success in the mass market. Although Timex had a solid reputation for durable products, increased efforts were put behind quality improvement. Longer battery life, more durable gold plating, greater accuracy and more water resistant styles were some of the many improvements that were implemented. New quartz analog movements were created using fewer components, reducing overall production time and costs. Top athletes assisted in the design of sports watches for specific sports which led to the introduction of the Ironman Triathlon
Timex Ironman
The Timex Ironman is a digital wristwatch first produced by Timex in 1986 that continues to be made in various styles today.-History and development:...
in 1986. Named for the Hawaiian triathlon the company had sponsored since 1984, the Ironman Triathlon became the most successful Timex watch in the post-mechanical watch era. Within its first year, Timex Ironman became the best-selling watch in the United States, and the world's largest selling sport watch for the next decade.
Following on the success of the Ironman Triathlon line, Timex introduced the Indiglo night light during the Christmas shopping season in 1992. By January 1993 Indiglo had made headlines as a result of the bombing of the World Trade Center
1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...
in which an office worker wearing a Timex with an Indiglo night light used its light to guide a group of evacuees down 40 dark flights of stairs. Sales immediately took off leading to an increase in Timex's American market share.
Timex Corporation acquired Callanen International, the producer of Guess? Watches, in 1991 as part of its "multi-brand strategy". Timex and Disney reunited in 1993 to produce a new line of character watches called Disney Classics Collection. In 1994, Timex acquired the Nautica Watches license and introduced Timex Data Link
Timex Datalink
Timex Datalink or Timex Data Link was a line of watches manufactured by Timex. As the name implies datalink watches are capable of data transfer through linking with a computer...
. The Data Link PDA-type watch could receive contact and scheduling information from a sequence in a computer monitor's light using software developed with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. 1997 saw the introduction of the successful Timex Expedition brand, designed for rugged outdoor sports. Timex and Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
introduced Beepwear in 1998, a watch with an integrated pager.
The new millennium led to further growth of Timex Corporation and its parent, Timex Group B.V., by way of brand acquisition, brand introduction and licensing partnerships. In 2000, Timex Corporation purchased the French fashion watch brand Opex. Under its Callanen subsidiary, Timex acquired the watch license for urban fashion designer Marc Ecko in 2002.
The company entered the luxury market in 2005 when Timex's parent company acquired Swiss-based Vertime SA. Vertime is responsible for the design, manufacturing and distribution of Swiss-Made watches and jewelry for the Versace and Versus brands.
Timex launched a new brand In 2006 called TX, marketed around innovative technology and affordable luxury. During the same year, Timex Group B.V. acquired the ultra-luxury hand-made Swiss brand Vincent Bérard.
In 2007, Timex Group B.V. established Sequel AG as a separate company devoted to the design, manufacturing and distribution of the Guess? and the Swiss-Made Gc watch brands. The Sequel AG business is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. Timex Group B.V. purchased the Italian design studio Giorgio Galli Design Lab in 2007.
Timex Group USA, Inc. (2008–present)
The company was restructured in early 2008, establishing the Timex Business Unit as a separate business function for the Timex brand with its own president. Until then, past Timex Group CEO's had managed the Timex Group and brand, which had contributed to the brand’s less-than-stellar earnings in the previous five years. While Timex Group’s Sequel division, which houses the Guess collections, had grown tremendously to rival Timex as the firm’s top earner, the signature brand had been flat, as of August 2008. Since this change, Timex has introduced GPSGlobal Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
enabled watches, heart rate monitor
Heart rate monitor
A heart rate monitor is a personal monitoring device which allows a subject to measure his or her heart rate in real time or record his or her heart rate for later study...
exercise watches and similar high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
devices.
In 2008, Timex Group USA signed a four-year agreement making Timex the first official timekeeper of the ING New York City Marathon
New York City Marathon
The New York City Marathon is a major annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is one of the largest marathons in the world, with 45,103 finishers in 2010...
. Meanwhile, parent company Timex Group B.V. launched two new Swiss-Made luxury watch brands – Salvatore Ferragamo Timepieces and Valentino Timeless – under the Timex Group Luxury Watches business.
As the year closed, construction commenced on the second-largest ground mounted solar array in the northeastern United States at Timex Group USA's Middlebury, CT headquarters. The 800-panel solar array was inaugurated on February 5, 2009 during a press event held at the headquarters. A few months later Timex Group USA purchased ownership of the Marc Ecko watch trademark it had licensed since 2002. At the same time, the Callanen International business unit merged with the Timex Business Unit bringing the Timex, Opex, TX, Nautica and Marc Ecko brands all under one house.
In an agreement announced on June 16, 2009, Timex Group USA became an official sponsor of the NFL's
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
new headquarters and practice facility called the Timex Performance Center. Further details of the sponsorship include Timex being an official equipment provider to the Giants and working closely with the team to develop new products.
In honor of Timex's 50th anniversary, the company re-released their classic Timex 80 watch. The iconic retro design of this basic digital watch made it a hit with both fashion lovers and retro watch enthusiasts, and the range has since expanded to jumbo sizes, silver and gold metallic finishes and calculator watches.
Timex Group B.V.
Timex Group B.V., a Dutch holding company, is the corporate parent of several watchmaking companies around the globe including Timex Group USA, Inc. Businesses and exclusive worldwide licenses include the Timex Business Unit (Timex, Timex IronmanTimex Ironman
The Timex Ironman is a digital wristwatch first produced by Timex in 1986 that continues to be made in various styles today.-History and development:...
, Opex, TX, Nautica, Marc Eckō
Ecko
Eckō unltd. is a brand of urban lifestyle clothing founded by fashion designer Marc Ecko, that has been popular since the late 1990s, and moved into the mainstream urban culture in the early 2000s. It is most often associated with hip-hop people. The style is based on graffiti art.The creation of...
), Timex Group Luxury Watches (Valentino
Valentino SpA
Valentino SpA is a clothing company founded in 1959 by Valentino Garavani. Nowadays it is a part of Valentino Fashion Group. New creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli will take Alessandra Facchinetti's seat as creative designer...
, Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A.
Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A. is an Italian luxury goods company, with headquarters in Florence, specializing in shoes, leather goods, and ready-to-wear for men and women. It is the parent company of the Ferragamo Group...
), Sequel (Guess, Gc), Vertime (Versace, Versus), Vincent Bérard and Giorgio Galli Design Lab. Today, Timex Group B.V.'s products are manufactured in the Far East and in Switzerland, often based on technology that continues to be developed in the United States and in Germany. The group has operations in a number of countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
See also
- Timexpo: The Timex MuseumTimexpo MuseumThe Timexpo Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut is dedicated to the history of Timex Group and its predecessors, featuring exhibits going back to the founding of Waterbury Clock Company in 1854. The museum is located in the Brass Mill Commons shopping center and its location is marked by a high...
- IndigloIndigloIndiglo is a brand name of Indiglo Corporation, solely owned by Timex for licensing purposes. Timex electroluminescent lamps, branded Indiglo, were introduced through Kmart in 1992 in the Ironman watch line...
- Timex DatalinkTimex DatalinkTimex Datalink or Timex Data Link was a line of watches manufactured by Timex. As the name implies datalink watches are capable of data transfer through linking with a computer...
- Timex IronmanTimex IronmanThe Timex Ironman is a digital wristwatch first produced by Timex in 1986 that continues to be made in various styles today.-History and development:...
- Georges Frederic RoskopfGeorges Frederic RoskopfGeorges F. Roskopf , the inventor of the pin-pallet escapement, was born in Germany and became a naturalized Swiss citizen.- Early life and introduction :...
- Ingersoll Watch CompanyIngersoll Watch CompanyThe Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a mail order business started in New York City in 1882 by 21-year-old Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother Charles Henry. The company initially sold low-cost items such as rubber stamps...
- American clockAmerican clockThe term American clock was used in the Victorian era and afterward to refer to a particular style of clock design followed by the American clockmakers of the day...
- Conrad Anker, Brand Embassador for Timex ExpeditionConrad AnkerConrad Anker is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author famous for his challenging ascents in the high Himalaya and Antarctica. He is a member of The North Face climbing team and also works closely with Timex Expedition as brand ambassador...