Huckberry Teams Up With Timex For Nostalgic IRONMAN Flix Reissue

The late ’90s were a simpler time when it came to activity devices. There were no smart or connected watches, just simple, straightforward timers from brands like Timex and Casio. They could time you, and even keep track of laps, but they couldn’t track you the way these things do today. If you miss devices like that, you’ll be thrilled about this latest collaborative effort between Timex and our friends at Huckberry, who are bringing back the Ironman Flix watch, complete with that sweet Indiglo dial. The nostalgia hits hard with this one, like digging up that Walkman that still works, or even the Talkboy you absolutely needed that one Christmas. Tech wasn’t afraid to have some personality back in the ’90s and early ’00s, and the original Timex Ironman Flix was no exception.

The Timex Ironman Flix gets the same Ironman labeling as the original, a nod to its pedigree in helping train triathletes thanks to it’s expansive 100 lap memory (!), and memo mode where you could store some (brief) notations on your activities. This may seem paltry by today’s super high-tech smart wearable devices, but this was impressive stuff for such a small device not long ago. Further, this boils your activities down to their basics, and encourages a far more straightforward approach to working out… just doing it. The Ironman Flix is a breath of fresh air, and I should know, it was my sole running companion for a week.

With every major new Apple Watch release I tend to spend a few weeks trying it out, right alongside my regular watch. A big part of the experience is using it for my physical activities. Apple has gamified remaining active through the day will little rings that can be completed as you hit your move and stand goals. All great stuff and very useful to many people. For my own purposes, I always find them a bit intrusive, and even worse, all the data presented about each run kind of forces me to feel like I need to best it every time out. It’s a viscous cycle that can take some of joy out of simply running for the mental and physical benefits. As a result, I generally run with, well, nothing. I just get out and go. I know my routes and their distances, and I generally have a good idea of my pace, so all I’d ever really want out there is a timer.

The Ironman Flix suits my needs perfectly. With the two ‘action’ buttons placed front and center under the screen of the dial, it’s far easier to manipulate than a touch screen or even the more hidden away buttons of something like a G-Shock DW-5600. Stop-Rest at the left, Start-Split at the right. Simple. Now, I am not a triathlete or what you’d call “Ironman” material, as the branding of this watch details, and I’d suggest you needn’t be either to enjoy using this one. So I don’t use up the full 100 lap memory, or the memo slots, but day in and day out this a fantastic workout companion for those not training to become world class athletes (which is most of us, right?).

Like many of the watches we talk about around here, though, it works just fine outside of its advertised use case. This Ironman features a certain ’90s style aesthetic that you may find perfectly accents the rest of your fit, as that era makes a comeback (if the high-schoolers in my Brooklyn neighborhood are any indication, at least). The molded plastic case has some funk that absent on much of today’s clean modern tech. Perhaps best of all is that Indiglo button at the top left side of the case, which lights up the screen in a way that instantly triggers a “Woah!” reaction.

The price of this Timex X Huckberry Ironman Flix reissue is set at $109, and it will be available from both Timex.com and Huckberry.com as of today. If you like the idea of a simple workout tool that isn’t tracking your every neuron, or merely miss the days of ’90s styled tech, you might find a lot to enjoy here. Timex x Huckberry