Is it the Year of the Clock? Timex Introduces the Waterbury America 250 Table Clock

I don’t really have a ton of evidence to support this, but I have a vague sense that clocks are maybe about to have a moment. There seem to be some signs. There’s the Audemars Piguet x Swatch collaboration, which, for all the ink spilled about the disaster of a rollout, has the potential (still!) to be a big pop culture moment this year, and I have a feeling many future owners of the Royal Pop will use it as a desk clock in some fashion. There was the recent launch of a new Horological Machine from MB&F which is, basically, a big robot clock. Earlier this year, a real highlight of the Louis Vuitton slate was a clock made in partnership with L’Epée (also a collaborator on the MB&F). It just seems like an unusual amount of clock activity, coupled with a similarly unusual amount of interest in said clocks. 

That leads me to one of the more unexpected and interesting things I’ve seen from Timex in a bit, the new Waterbury America 250 Table Clock. Part of a series of releases commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the clock draws on classic pocket watch design language and is a pretty attractive hunk of stainless steel that I think would look good on many a desk, whether it belongs to a watch lover or not. 

The clock case is a mix of brushed and polished steel, with star accents along the caseband and a guilloche engraving with a gold tone emblem on the retractable lid. A button on the side of the case releases the lid and allows the dial to pop up for viewing. A hinge allows the user to position the clock at a variety of angles – it can also be left flat in its case and propped up on a stand of some kind, I suppose. The case measures 49mm wide when closed, and when the clock is actuated it comes to about 53mm in height. No word yet on any third party 3D printed bracelets so that this can be worn as a watch. 

The little details are all classic Timex and work well within the larger Waterbury collection, which leans into classic Americana. The dial is glossy white with black Roman numerals and blue hands, with simple Timex branding at 12:00 and “250” in blue near the 6:00 position. The interior has a perlage finish, but my personal favorite detail is the coin edge bezel that nicely complements the guilloche lid. The clock is fitted with a mineral crystal and runs on an unspecified quartz movement. 

The Waterbury America 250 Table Clock has a retail price of $399, and is expected to begin shipping in late June, just in time for the big July 4 celebrations. Timex

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