Armitron’s First Major Rebrand in 50 Years: Beyond Fashion Watches?

Regardless of what’s in your collection now, we all had a piece that acted as a gateway drug – the one that first sunk the horology hook in. Maybe your fondest early wristwatch memories are illuminated in Timex Indiglo? Perhaps they take the shape of a Casio G-SHOCK? Could it have been an analog Armitron with one of the Looney Toons characters on the dial? Maybe your dad bought you a bogus Rolex “Pepsi” GMT on Canal Street and threw it on a rubber strap so you could wear it as a 7 year old, and maybe someone stole it out of your duffle bag at Tae Kwon Do and you’re still not fully over the loss at 37? 

Most of the manufacturers that helped us originally fall in love with wristwatches have found creative ways to grow with us and to evolve as watch collecting has shifted into the mainstream. Timex currently boasts a respectable line of vintage-inspired, entry level watches – including a few collaborative pieces with Worn & Wound that we, of course, think are fantastic. G-SHOCK has managed to stay exceptionally relevant via hyped celebrity collabs with the likes of John Mayer and Ed Sheeran. As for Armitron, they’ve maintained a comfortable station as a producer of affordable fashion watches that are generally sold at big box stores, and while their line has consistently included a few playful heritage pieces that hint at the potential for more, they’ve never really been a part of the conversation for enthusiasts. However, that might be changing as Armitron has announced the first ever major rebrand in the company’s history. 

While you could be forgiven for only knowing Armitron’s fun Looney Tunes pieces from yesteryear, their classic Garfield-branded watches, or their undeniably cool digital Griffy model, with its sculpted, pseudo-cushion case, the brand has an intriguing history. Founded in 1975, Armitron has been owned and operated by the same NYC-based family since its inception. Armitron wears its NYC-local identity proudly and has been the official timing partner of the New York Yankees for over 30 years, and a massive Armitron “Pro Sport” clock is still proudly perched next to the jumbotron at Yankees Stadium. So it was only fitting that Armitron unveiled its rebrand with an event at the recent Yankees vs. Orioles game. As two of the finest teams in the league locked horns (and iconic Yankees slugger Aaron Judge took a pitch to the hand – he’s OK), Armitron’s top brass brought the press inside its rebrand in a box suite. 

While there was a bevy of new designs and refreshed takes on Armitron’s staple pieces to be seen, the major focus of the rebrand is a shift towards eComm and a direct-to-consumer approach that will hopefully give the brand more direct and tangible feedback about what their buyers are really interested in. The Armitron team unveiled a fully revamped, eComm capable website and a campaign that features the slogan “Love Every Second”, and the brand’s executive team shared sentiments about a watch’s real purpose in 2024 and their ability to help us “slow down and cherish the precious micro-moments that define our lives,” as CFO Adam Gelnick puts it. According to CMO Marisol Tamaro, the shift towards an eComm platform is “A real opportunity for us to speak to consumers directly and build a relationship with our consumer base with the goal of making sure that we were addressing our customers in a way that was relevant and more meaningful than we can in the wholesale retail space.” 

While all of that points in the right direction for the brand, the new watches being produced are ultimately what mattered most. There are certainly some new releases that indicate that Armitron is very capable of vamping on its history in an engaging way, particularly the Ridgemont, a hip, square-cased analog/digital hybrid that the brand showed with several bold new dial colors, and the classic Griffy model – which has had several new colorways added to the line. The brand also showed off a new line of colorful, rugged children’s watches that they will be launching soon, and a line of handsome analog pieces that flex Armitron’s green initiative with cases made of reclaimed ocean plastics called the Reef and the Wave. The Reef, in particular, may be the most intriguing new watch they showed off; an ideal outdoorsy weekender that runs on solar power and hits the sizing sweet spot 37mm. Being that it’s a plastic piece, this model offers the potential for near limitless variation in future releases. When it came to pieces that might capture the interest of horology heads on a budget, the brand showed off its Blueprint line, a collection of 42mm automatics that feature skeletonized dials and come in at under $200. 

However, while some of the new pieces displayed showed a step in the right direction for Armitron, the overall picture painted is that the brand isn’t quite tapped into the interests of the enthusiast market just yet, which was a bit disappointing given the amount of noise made over the rebrand. Among the aforementioned bright spots, they also showed off a few lazy bites of Cartier watches, like the Titan and the Tilly, which seem truly unnecessary for a brand that has its own identity and history like Armitron. There is undoubtedly plenty of potential here, but the reality is that listening to the enthusiast market has never been required of Armitron, which has long been a wholesale-based business. Fortunately, it appears that they’re attempting to do just that, and Armitron has a unique enough visual identity, heritage catalog, and diversity in its product offerings to make strides in that direction really easily. Whether that’s through collaboration with outside designers or a closer relationship with their end buyer, models like the Reef or the Ridgemont, when taken in an enthusiast-minded direction, can be major wins for Armitron. The same goes for adding more automatic offerings. Ultimately, Armitron is a historically relevant, family-owned brand that has all of the tools at its disposal to make it happen and they seem to earnestly want to do so. They’re just not quite there yet.