Arctic, Collaboration, and Helium
Here we go again. I can’t not respond to some recent releases on the Timex diver front. I’m in the midst of completing some other more research intensive posts but decided to stop and speak my piece. Three releases prompted me, two of them got me hot under the collar. I am a big diver fan and particularly follow Timex’s history of diver and diver-style watches.
Helium
This one really left me scratching my head. I have not yet read any other reviews of the Timex Meridian 44mm auto divers with Helium release valve, but found this rather surprising. Why did Timex decide they needed a diver with a HEV? Personally, I automatically, no pun intended, crossed these off my list of desirable Timex watches. Or, maybe I should say automatically decided not to add them to my list. Too big at 44mm, they have a HEV which is something I will never need, its not a particularly interesting looking diver, and lastly, I’m on the fence about automatics.
We all know the watch enthusiast community loves it’s divers even though 90% of dive watch owners will never scuba dive. Probably half of them will never get submerged. There are lots of reasons to like this type of watch, so I make no judgements. I have many myself, old and new, and love the heck out of them. We all also know anyone really needing a underwater tool for their occupation will probably not be choosing a Timex as first choice; especially if you do some type of saturation diving and actually need a helium escape valve, which the majority of actual divers never need.
So, what is Timex doing? This sort of falls into the Timex Atelier category of target marketing; who asked for this? Is Timex just adding some do-dad to a watch to get more money from customers? HEV aside, a 200m diver with sapphire and auto movement, on a bracelet, is a pretty good value for $500. We know Americans love to have stuff on their gadgets and vehicles that they will never use, just to be able to say they have them. We are all suckers for paying for extra features, just because. Just like divers we don’t need, we get GMTs and chronos we don’t need.
There was already a 44mm Meridian Titanium auto with HEV, 300m WR, at $1000, and other 44mm quartz Meridians at $300 and 42mm Meridian GMTs autos at $550, and my favorite, the 38mm quartz at $270. There was also, already an auto 44mm Meridian on rubber for $410. So, these steel 200 HEVs are a HEV at a lower price point than the titanium version. The white dial version of the new HEV is something different, but on these steel versions, why another, cheaper HEV? It seems like a better idea would be a 42mm with solar quartz and no HEV?
Bogus Nostalgia
The next irritating Timex release I saw recently was the Bespoke Post x Timex Heritage 66. Now, I like Bespoke Post to a point and I love Timex but this effort doesn’t hit the mark for me. Right away I knew this release was sketchy; The marketing copy talks about how it was inspired by the 1966 skin diver, but this watch looks nothing like the 36mm 1966 12571, so why even go there?
The Heritage 66 is not an awful looking watch, but it more resembles something from Timex in the ’80s or 2006, or the 2016 Navi series, especially with that Mercedes handset and MILSUB markers. They did leave off the crown guards and the bezel markings are the same as the 1966 12571. Obviously at 40mm, its bigger than the old skin divers too, but at least they did not go bigger still! It looks bigger than 40mm at first glance. Usually on these collabs they scrabble together existing or previously used components to make it affordable for a limited run. So far, I can’t identify this case as being used before. Had it looked like the Timex 60s-70s skin diver, I would have been in line to get one.
As it stands, it is a 200m quartz diver with flat mineral crystal and boring dial in black and orange with equally boring hand set. They do give you two straps; an orange NATO and a black tropical. Pretty disappointing based on the “inspiration”. It could have been so much better. All they had to do was take the dial layout they used for the 2018 xGreats Bayman collab and add some bold arrow hands and it would be there; a 1966 look. It could have also been a manual wind movement at $270! And where is the domed acrylic?
It’s a little too big, skin diver-like watch that doesn’t have the same vibe as the 1966? There are lots of interesting not-so-skin diver styles from the archives they could have brought back for a collab. What about the 40511 from the late ’80s? Or the funky 40501, 40511 from ’95? No, instead they craft together a skin diver-ish hybrid.
I am mildly interested–want to like it, but can get more nostalgia from any Archive era Navi, and 200m from my Reefs, so I probably won’t be adding this to my collection. The more I think about it the more disappointed I get. I still like the Reef line, which has a better skin diver look, so was hoping for a smaller 38mm version of it. This collab could have been a chance to try it. I just don’t get a good skin diver vibe from this thing.
Arctic Additions
On another tack, I do like the two new Deepwater Arctic 40.5mm color schemes. Supposedly released as a more retro look than the Meridians, these two add some depth (no pun again) to the Arctic bench. I was not clear about the release of the Arctic right after the Meridian because they are not really so different? Its in the details; For me, the edge goes to the Arctic for the dial layout with long wedge hour markers and some numbers at 12, 3, 6, 9 and no date.
The gradient blue dial on brushed/polished stainless is the prominent one, but the dark grey plated case version with grey dial is a pretty interesting look, too. Timex did a dark case Reef also. They both come on rubber, so a more casual look than the earlier Arctics on a bracelet. They feel less dressy. I ‘d need to try these straps, though. Like the Reefs, I’d probably replace this strap something a little flatter.
As for retro inspiration, it depends on your frame of reference and how far back you want to go. They are going back to the ’80s I think, rather than mid-century, and still trying to modernize everything, too. Timex has not been good at doing a retro diver because they really don’t have much tradition to draw on because after the early ’70s skin divers, they got out of the skin dive scene, and it has not really been their thing. They had many “sport”, digital, or diver-like watches, but no classic 200m divers until post-Covid. I do like the look f the Arctic a little more than the Meridian.
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