TX is not just Timex
I received a TX World Time for review last week. Wow. This is definitely not your dad’s Timex. I think it is fair to say that TX is to Timex what Tissot is to Swatch. Yes, Swatch group makes Tissot, but a Tissot is not a Swatch, and a TX is not Timex. It’s big, it’s dramatic, and it’s a little too much for me.
The first thing that jumps out at me is that the TX is big. 45mm on my slim wrists is a little much. But for its size, it is light, but feels solid. I know this sounds like a contradiction, but watches this size are either rocks, or feel like they’ll snap between your fingers. The TX feels remarkably well made for being so light. Fit and finish were immaculate. All edges and corners are clean and sharp. Surfaces had mirror finishes and flats are flat. The black finish is beautiful. The element I liked best was the use of rose gold for the hands and hour markings. The rose gold added a touch of class that the usual yellow gold finish does not. The TX logo is enamelled on the crown and worked into the end of the second hand. The hands and hour markings are luminescent, as are the retrograde hands. The retrograde hands threw me for a loop the first time I saw them in the dark, as there are no reference markings, just mysterious glowing hands floating on the dial. Once you know to look for them, they’ll stop distracting. What I mistook for a blur in the finish was a nicely executed little world map on the dial. This adds up to a rich and dramatic appearance.
The dial is busy, but that is a reflection of the functionality and this adds to its charm. In addition to the customary HH:mm:ss, and date, you have a second time zone. The time zone is indicated by the hand with the crescent at the end, and it points to cities, and countries named along the inside of the bezel for each time zone, and is controlled with the two buttons flanking the crown. Time in the second time zone is indicated on a retrograde hand in the upper right of the dial. The other retrograde style hand indicates standard or daylight savings time, and is controlled by the button on the left side of the dial.
I really like the functionality, I get a lot of use out of a second time zone, and the zone markings relieve me of the need to think through which way is which and how many hours. Put an alarm on this puppy, and it would be a dream come true.
The TX World Time is a beautiful watch, but a bit much for a guy like me, who usually wears an Ollech & Wajs M-65. For what it is, an initial entry into the luxury watch market, it is great. It would be an excellent first up-scale watch for a young man, and a great watch for someone who enjoys the dramatic appearance.
It looks like the lure of the complicated watch is digging deep into the substrata of watch buyers. The TX line is looking hot so far, with mechanical movements, lots of retrograde hands, and enough quality to make us think twice about Timex.
