The band on my watch is getting very frayed, so I figured it was about time for a new watch rather than spend money getting a new band. I’ve had fairly good luck with Timex watches so I went to their site to see what they had that would be similar to my current watch.
During the search I came across a Timex Ironman watch that has the interesting feature of having analog hands over a face with an LCD display that can be turned on or off. In the comments for the watch at Amazon people mentioned the Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction. According to Wikipedia the watch practically co-starred in the movie (I haven’t seen the movie yet). That article also identifies the watch as being a Timex T56371 model. I guess Timex paid a bunch of money to have their watch in the movie, but it would still be kind of neat having the same watch as in a movie.
Not enough for me, though. I opted for the less snazzy T42491 which has no digital component. I debated between it and a similar one with a white face (T42501 after deciding against a neat chronometer model. The moving parts of a chronometer appeal to the engineer in me, but it doesn’t offer that much utility. I decided it was better to have the day and date than 3 different dials for seconds, minutes, and hours and the date shoved off to one corner. They’re really pushing the chronometer because it comes in a several different color schemes including red, blue, and beige. Susan said the red one was ugly.
Anyway, I should get my new watch this week.
Putting together these links it looks like the Timex website is just an Amazon store. Their URLs for their watches use the same ASIN number as Amazon.
Today I went to Target to take a look at the watches in person. The Ironman watch had a sign on it saying “As featured in Stranger Than Fiction.” The face looked gray to me, like a regular LCD, instead of white like it looks in the picture above.
I’m really stuck on the Expedition variations that have that are analog with built in digital. I use the alarm, lap, countdown alarm, date all the “time”.
I got the watch Monday. Here’s my Amazon review:
4 stars
I’ve had this watch for about a week, my third Timex Expedition in about 10 years (the first two were from the Aluminum Trail series). I liked the plain looks and the day and date windows; Indiglo is a must-have for me now. Unlike the picture, the numbers on the face are white with a shiny metallic border. The metallic border gives the numbers kind of a double-vision look in some lighting conditions, but I guess it makes them show up better. The watch is fairly large, but not huge. It is also heavier than I thought it would be which makes it feel solid. The turning bezel (counterclockwise only) is kind of useless, but has a nice stiff ratcheting motion. I like that the crown is protected since with my last Expedition the crown would pop up sometimes when I took my hand out of my pocket, stopping the watch. The band is kind of cheap-looking: gray nylon with leather sewn on top. Hopefully it will last a while though. One quibble, which hopefully won’t matter very often, is that you can only set the day by adjusting the time, so you may have to do a lot of winding the first time you get the watch to get to the right day.
The band on this watch was falling apart after two years of everyday use. I have used Voguestrap’s website to get Timex bands before, but after visiting there to see what they had in a metal band (not as comfortable but they last a lot longer), I decided to see if Walmart had anything. In fact they had the exact same bands for less money than online. I picked out a heavy $14 band, but the salesperson couldn’t make it small enough for my wrist (she was very nice but not particularly talented) so I wound up getting another metal one ($8) that she also couldn’t make small enough. However, she showed me that some links have arrows indicating they can be removed and when I got home, I was able to remove several links and get the band to the right size.
The watch is in perfect shape other than its band, and hasn’t needed a new battery yet. It worked fine in the salt water on vacation though I wasn’t able to test it to 100 meters. But if 6 feet is any indication, I think it would be fine.
My watch stopped yesterday. On the back it said it took a CR2016 battery. I thought maybe I could take it to Walmart, but I looked up my “Batteries” note on my iPod and noticed that the little freebie keychain LED lights I have also use a CR2016. I also found some instructions on the web about changing batteries in a Timex Expedition watch and it seemed pretty doable. It said put silicone lubricant on the o-ring and I even had some of that for flashlights. And it said to squeeze the back on with a clamp, and I had one that would be perfect for that too. So now the watch is running again. The original battery lasted over 5 years.
During the last week, some moisture showed up inside the crystal. This is a bad sign, especially since it is supposed to be a water resistant to 100 meters. It could be that after I replaced the battery last year, that I didn’t make it water tight when I put the back on. Or it could just be it has gotten old. The other thing is the battery is so weak that the Indiglo barely lights up, so I knew it needed another battery. I got some brand new CR2016 batteries through Amazon for really cheap. So I opened up the watch and, unlike last time, it was very difficult to put the battery in and I think I wound up bending some kind of prong that is supposed to hold the battery in. I got it together and it wouldn’t run, but probably the battery wasn’t in there right. So I went looking for watches on Amazon and found a cheap Timex with day and date windows and a metal band (cloth and leather bands just don’t last). Not an Expedition model. So anyway, this watch lasted six years, which is pretty good. Of course, today when I got home, I tried to put it back together again and it started ticking again. It is definitely not waterproof anymore because part of the rubber o-ring seal is sticking out the side.