Timex Group USA, Inc.
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| Type | Privately Held |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1854 as Waterbury Clock Company |
| Headquarters | Middlebury, Connecticut, USA with various operations in Europe, the Americas, and Asia |
| Industry | Watch manufacturing, Luxury Goods |
| Owner(s) | Timex Group B.V. |
| Website | http://www.timexgroup.com/ |
Timex Group B.V. is the parent of Timex Group USA, Inc., formerly known as Timex Corporation until 2008. The latter is located in Middlebury, Connecticut, and began in 1854 as Waterbury Clock in Connecticut's Naugatuck Valley, known during the nineteenth century as the "Switzerland of America." [1] Waterbury, CT based brass manufacturer Benedict & Burnham created Waterbury Clock Company as a clock-making subsidiary in the advent of brass gears being introduced to clock-making. Waterbury Clock Company was legally incorporated on March 27, 1857 as an independent business with $60,000 in capital.[2][3][4] Sister company Waterbury Watch manufactured the first inexpensive mechanical pocket watch in 1880. During World War I, Waterbury began making wristwatches, which had only just become popular, and in 1933 it made history by creating the first Mickey Mouse clock under license from Walt Disney, with Mickey's hands pointing the time. This was made under the Ingersoll brand.[2]
Watches were not sold under the name Timex in the U.S until 1950. Over the next three decades, Timex watches were sold through a series of advertisements which emphasized durability by putting watches through "torture tests," such as falling over the Grand Coulee Dam or being strapped to the propeller of an outboard motor, with the slogan "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking." With the help of TV newscaster-turned-spokesman John Cameron Swayze, sales took off.[2] The company later became Timex Corporation, then Timex Group USA, Inc., and, to date, has sold over one billion watches worldwide.
In the 1970s, the American watch and clock industry was devastated by the arrival of cheap mechanical watches from the Far East, as well as the development of digital quartz watches pioneered by Japanese companies. In the 1980s, in a joint venture with Sinclair Research Ltd, the company entered the home computer business, selling such computers as the Timex Sinclair 1000 and succeeding machines, modeled on the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum. After a reasonably good sales performance to begin with, the Timex Corporation decided it couldn't compete with the low-end market's eventual saturation and so the company withdrew.[5][2]
Timex Corporation survived the 1970s and 1980s and came back strong. Today, the company remains profitable and competitive and the Timex brand remains strong. The primary market remains the United States and Canada for the Timex brand, although Timex watches are sold worldwide due to a strong brand image and reputation for quality. In addition, Timex Group B.V. sells many other brands addressing all segments of the watch market, including Guess, Gc, Nautica, Marc Eckō, TX, Opex and, in a successful foray into the luxury watch market, Versace, Versus, Valentino Timeless, Salvatore Ferragamo Timepieces and Vincent Bérard. In addition to its regular watch lines, Timex manufactures the well-received Timex Datalink series of PDA-type watches that has attained cult-like status among computer gadget aficionados. Timex also manufactures GPS enabled watches, heart rate monitor exercise watches and similar high tech devices.
Today, Timex Group B.V.'s products are manufactured in the Far East and in Switzerland, often based on technology that continues to be developed in the United States and in Germany. The group has operations in a number of countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
As of 2006[update], it had 5,500 employees on four continents. It is privately held and does not have a published annual report.
Contents |
[edit] Products
 Timex Datalink Model 150 |
 Timex Sinclair 1000 one of the earliest and most affordable home computers |
 Notebook adapter for the Timex Datalink series of watches |
 Indiglo light system |
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Timex |
- Timexpo the Timex Group Museum
- Indiglo
- Timex Datalink
- Timex Ironman
- Georges Frederic Roskopf
- Ingersoll Watch Company
- American clock
[edit] References
- ^ Cliff Calderwood (2006-01-26). "The Switzerland of America". Complete New England. http://www.completenewengland.com/2006/01/26/the-switzerland-of-america/. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
- ^ a b c d McDermott, Kathleen (1998). Timex: A Company and Its Community. ISBN 0967508703.
- ^ Anderson, Joseph; Prichard, Sarah Johnson; Lydia Ward, Anna (1896). "Chapter XXIII The Smaller Brass Companies". The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, Volume 2. New Haven, CT: The Price and Lee Company. pp. 377-380. LCCN 98000206. http://books.google.com/books?id=H_cLAAAAYAAJ&dq=waterbury%20clock&pg=PA379#v=onepage&q=waterbury%20clock&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
- ^ Pape, William Jamieson (1918). "Chapter XVIII Clocks, Watches, Pins, Needles, Hooks and Eyes". History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume 1. Chiacago – New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. pp. 224-227. LCCN 18021396. http://books.google.com/books?id=LwwWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA225&dq=waterbury+clock+company#v=onepage&q=waterbury%20clock%20company&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ Glasmeier, Amy (2000). "Chapter 9 Only the Young Survive: The U.S. Watch Industry between the World Wars and after World War II". Manufacturing time: global competition in the watch industry, 1795-2000. Guilford Press. pp. 189 -192. ISBN 1572305894. http://books.google.com/books?id=cVUSauNST8EC&pg=PA189&dq=waterbury+clock+company+World+War&lr=#v=onepage&q=waterbury%20clock%20company%20World%20War&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
