Timex xBespoke Post Viscount

Retro Reinterpretation Fun

I have so many things to write about but have been doing everything but! So, I’m just going to start typing.

This post is about another watch I never expected to see. A reinterpretation of the late ’70s to early 80’s Viscount. It has been a favorite of mine with its military-style looks. This retro-shaped case also seems to be a favorite of the recent collaboration wave. It reminds me of the Worn and Wound WW75 Timex collabs. It is also similar to the Timex reissues of 1975-78 looks.

Of course, it sold out quickly at both Bespoke Post and Timex sites.

I understand this great dial being an inspiration for another revival by Bespoke Post. This fun design from the Timex archives has been a favorite of many. Todd Snyder was inspired by it for his Military collaboration series from 2017. I wrote about this in an earlier post.

With these collaborations, it’s always hard to know how they came about. Did someone at Bespoke Post contact Timex with this Viscount concept or did Timex suggest it after Bespoke asked them to do a collaboration? Did Timex have this ready?

I have owned a 1978 Viscount automatic for about eight years. When I found it on eBay I was attracted by the interesting dial layout, and the fact that it was an automatic. There was just something about it that made it stand out? I was definitely feeling the military vibe, but was not sure I considered it a “field” watch. It was one of the few autos I owned at the time.

1977 Viscount Line

As with the Todd Snyder Military before it Bespoke Post and Timex took the core design and tweaked things a bit. You might even say it has been given more vintage clues than the original.

I think the model 461701 Viscount first appeared in the the Timex catalog in 1977. At the time the Viscount line was a step up from the Sprite manual wind line. The new quartz models were the top coming in at twice the price of the auto Viscounts. All the Viscounts did not all look like the 461701. The Viscounts came in a variety of styles; silver, gold dressy and sporty. There were several different dials and case shapes. The name refers more to features of the watch than the looks. They were auto wind, water and dust resistant. The 461701 had the military-style dial.

While not an exact replica, this reinterpretation gets it vibe right and maybe even improves it a bit. The new case is a bit bigger; 36mm to the old 35mm and has a bit more curve to it. For cost reasons, they have gone from an auto movement to a quartz movement. At $159 in quartz, it would be $220-250 as an auto.

The domed crystal keeps the feel going too even though the original acrylic was a bit taller and had a bigger radius on the curve. The distortion effect is still there.

The dial is the star here. Let me start with the details of the original and the later collabs that make this watch so distinctive.

What a Dial

Colors: You’ve got the black background with white, yellow red and orange added in. The white Din-style numbers say MILSPEC and pop off the dial. The inner 24-hour track in red is classic. This has always been a bit hard to read on black, but the color change is nice. Then the outer minutes/seconds scale in yellow takes this dial to another level. It may be the one detail that peaks the most interest? Besides the yellow, the prominent white min/sec marks and further tiny subdivision marks add great detail around the outer dial. This track is not continuous, but broken up into segments divided by small lume dots at the hour numbers. The tiny sub-second marks are so small and close together they appear more as solid white bars. Lastly, there is an orange second sweep hand.

Crosshair: So simple, but so evocative of the movement of time. I never get tired of the reticle. Someone recently gave me a silver-dialed Salvatore Ferragamo dress watch with a black crosshair. It makes all the difference.

Spike hour markers: Here is where the Bespoke Post version breaks away. Every other Roman numeral hour marker is replaced with a long, thin lumed triangle marker. To me, this adds a lot of drama and really screams vintage Omega. In a way, it breaks up the stern military layout and opens the watch up to a wider sport category.

As you see in the above image, Both Todd Snyder and Bespoke Post stayed true to the original appealing design. The Todd Snyder used a red second sweep instead of orange and added a broad arrow to the dial. This version added the triangle markers, minimized the red 24 hr track and emphasized the yellow outer track a bit more.

Strap Change?

If I have to find the main fault of this release, it is the 18mm Cordura/leather strap. At first glance it should work. However, it just feels cheaply generic? Timex used the same thing on the new auto version of the MK1. I suppose the idea here is the military casual look?

I want to like it, but I can’t? While Bespoke calls this a field watch, I’m not sure it really is. Cordura is a tough and practical, but maybe too much for this. A leather or canvas or unique weave would seem more fitting. The keepers particularly bother me being too loose and cheesy. My ’78 Viscount has its original stretch, brick pattern bracelet that isn’t going anywhere. For this new one I felt an instant urge to reach for a two-piece Barton canvas! Even an interesting NATO would be better? The watch deserves more attention to strap choice.

Final Thoughts

This release caught my eye while I was looking for something else. It only took a second for me to recognize something familiar. I saw it first as a Bespoke Post link. Even though I am trying to cut back on watch purchases I signed up for release notification, then promptly got one.

On trend, this collab is a familiar formula for Timex. It gives Bespoke Post another cool thing to add to its curated offerings. To me, it fits into one of my core collections I define as Military Fashion(MILFASH). Its something I still love. I don’t need this watch because I have so many similar watches. But, its a nice riff on one of my favorite watch designs. I still like vintage designs.

It shows that Timex is not slowing down on reviving styles form its archives. It also shows there is not much slowing in consumer demand for nostalgia an romance from past designs. Maybe the reason so many watch brands are continuing to revive heritage styles is because the analog watch a thing of the past. It is not needed anymore. Can it ever be wholly modern? It seems every time we try to do a new modern three hand watch, it rides on the back of an earlier concept.

You could argue that the Todd Snyder version was a more modern take take on the design, an advance, even though it borrowed the dial. The Bespoke Post version is trying to go back again, unabashedly getting as close as possible to the original. You could even say the addition of the triangle hour markers goes back even earlier than the late ’70s Viscount to a 1960s look?

Whatever the motivations, its fun to ride the vintage wave without having to worry about fragile failing movements, repairs and crumbling materials. Vintage collectors may bemoan this type of watch as not being the real thing, but good designs are still good designs no matter how old they are.