Monthly Archives: September 2009

Took a look inside of my little Timex and I had a couple of things confirmed:

The movement is very clean, and untouched since it was made almost 40 years ago.  It also has not seen the loving touch of watch oil in all those years, either.  This probably explains why I have seen some random stopping, mostly off the wrist.  It was also running a little slow, so I bumped the balance adjustment just a hair faster.  This watch also has no jewels and is a pin lever watch, which is what I expected.  Timex did (and does) make fully jeweled watches, but not this inexpensive version.  I would guess this watch was $9.95 new, which is about $35 now.  So, Timex still makes watches at the same price point.  How did I know this watch was never serviced?  Just look at the inside of the case back:

This is where a watchmaker would of marked the last service date.  All we see here is CASE, GREAT BRITAIN TIMEX with a stamped 8P70.  This almost certainly means it was made in August, 1970, in plant “P” or maybe P means PM, night shift.  I have read, back in the 50’s through 70’s, the watches were designed in the USA, the cases were made in England or Germany, and the movements came from Hong Kong.  Even now, I am pretty sure Timex is still structured this way.  Designed in the USA, movements made in Germany or China, cased in China.  They were one of the first “globalized’ companies.  You can also see on the case back scrapes from the automatic winding rotor.  Not a huge deal and pretty common on this age/quality movement.  Overall, the watch is still running OK.  I always carry my cell phone, just in case it dies on me during the day.

As a bonus, take look at this site, detailing the heyday of Timex.

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So, I picked up this little guy Friday:

The crystal is a little scratched, but no cracks, and the bracelet is not to my liking.  Also, there is about 40 years of someone’s DNA on there that is not mine.  So, off the bracelet goes:

Ahh, yes, almost 4 decades of filth.  Poor watch, at least most of the plating is intact. Still, eww.

Cleaned that off:

Using nothing more than water and cotton swabs, I was able to get the gunk off.  Now, the crystal:

I taped off the bezel and used a polishing cloth and CD cleaner to buff out the scratches.  It worked just okay, so I switched to a silver polish instead, and it worked much faster.

Here it is on Saturday morning.  Case and crystal polished and with a Fossil leather band I had.  Although the band was 18mm, the lugs are 17mm, but it still fit.  It works much better than I thought it would.  It surprised my wife as well.

It turned out better than I expected.  It is a pleasing, simple, watch.  It is a common watch, but I love the angular numbers.  It looks like IZ, not 12.  So far, it is keeping decent time on the wrist, not so much in the drawer, but that’s ok.  Here is a parting shot of the radial pattern on the dial:

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Polishing watch crystals.

I just picked up a vintage piece that I don’t want to spend money on a new crystal, since it really isn’t that bad.

I’ll let you all know how it works out.

This is the object of my little project, a lovely little Timex from the late 60’s, possibly 1970.  There is a 3270 on the dial which could mean week 32, 1970.

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