Timex Celebrates Fifty Years Of Quartz With The Q Timex 1972 Reissue

Trends are always in a constant state of flux. What’s cool today, may or may not be the “thing” five or ten years from now. And as time goes on, only the true classics remain and what was deemed uncool gets pushed to the side until the next generation comes through, uncovers it, dusts it off, and gives it a second (or third) life. It’s a cycle we’ve grown accustomed to in the watch world and quartz watches are a perfect example of that. In the late ‘70s the quartz watch was based on a brand new technology that produced an inexpensive way to make a watch and told the time more accurately than the mechanical watch did. It practically pushed mechanical watches to the brink of extinction.

Now we all know that mechanical watches would navigate through those tough times and find their resurgence. In fact, watches in general are more popular now than ever. We have websites dedicated to covering the newest watch releases, social feeds filled with endless wrist shots, in-depth YouTube review videos and occasionally watches find their way into pop culture or mainstream chatter. There’s an appreciation for all the various types of watches now. Sports watches and dress watches. Microbrands and luxury brands. Automatic and quartz. Yes, even quartz.

There is a shift in the perception of quartz watches. Gone are the days where quartz watches are looked at as being “impure” and inferior to mechanical watches. In actuality, quartz watches are convenient and reliable. For the most part, you get to skip any sort of complicated servicing and the watch always has the right time if you set it that way. Heck, I own a couple of quartz watches and they add a refreshing balance to the collection. We’ve seen brands upgrade their quartz technology bringing quartz watches to new heights and we’ve also seen brands stay true to their quartz roots since the inception of the quartz movement. One brand who has done the latter is Timex and today they celebrate fifty years of quartz with the Q Timex 1972 Reissue.

The Q Timex 1972 Reissue gets the full ‘70s vintage inspired treatment. The tonneau case shape shows off the bold curvy case lines and embodies the funkiness from the 1970’s time period. The steel case is wrapped in a shiny gold coating and seems fitting for a watch that celebrates fifty years of the brand using the quartz movement. From the looks of the photos, the polished finishing combined with the full-bodied case will display an array of distorted reflections as the watch moves through different spaces adding to the unique and funky appeal of the case.

The Q Timex 1972 Reissue also stays true to its vintage design as it comes with a trapezoidal date window displaying the date at three and a domed acrylic crystal which adds the warm vintage feel to the dial that can’t be achieved with a sapphire crystal, but also adds to the height of what is already a thick watch due to the barrel case. The tall profile, 43mm case width and a case body with virtually no lugs makes for a watch that should have a distinct look and feel on wrist.

The ruby red dial color contrasts perfectly with the gold and black rectangular hour markers. As you look more closely, the applied markers are cleverly raised off of the dial displaying a ‘floating’ visual effect. The shadows casted by the suspended hour markers add another dynamic element to the Q Timex 1972 Reissue. The underside of Q Timex 1972 Reissue is more understated, displaying a radially brushed solid steel caseback with the battery hatch fixed at the center for the 377 E-Cell battery that powers the quartz movement.

Quartz watches, and watches in general have come a long way in the past fifty years. Will both the mechanical and quartz watch still be around in the next fifty years? Who knows. But what I do know is that the wrist watch, and more specifically the quartz watch are here to stay, and we can depend on Timex to keep it that way.

The Q Timex 1972 Reissue retails for $169 and is currently available at Timex.