Timex Watches For Everybody

The company that drove the way for revolutionizing affordable, practical clocks began small. The Waterbury Clock company, much later to be known as the now famous Timex watches, was founded in 1854. Before the slogan, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking,” made Timex a household name, the Waterbury Company created the first inexpensive home clock every working class citizen could purchase. A few years later their sister company, Waterbury Watch, manufactured the first economical mechanical pocket watch, and then in early 1900 a pocket watch costing just one dollar, named “The Yankee”, was put on the market.
The Waterbury Company was a company of firsts.

They were the forerunners of inexpensive timepieces, bringing them into the average person’s home. Another first pertained to wristwatches. At the beginning of the 20th century only ladies wore wristwatches; men wore elaborate pocket watches attached to chains. World War I changed all that. Fighting men in the trenches began wearing wristwatches. A pocket watch was impractical when trying to get it out while shouldering a gun and standing vigilant against an enemy. The convenience stuck and after the war was over men found it acceptable to wear a watch strapped to their wrists.

During World War II the company name was changed to U.S. Time Company and kicked off a wristwatch ad campaign, calling it a Timex. The ad featured a watch strapped to the end of Mickey Mantles bat. Every man knew if the great Mickey Mantle wore a wristwatch, it was okay. Many ads followed, but the most famous advertisement slogan was quoted by veteran newscaster, John Cameron Swayze. “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking!” Timex watches for men were shoved in dishwashers, strapped to jackhammers, and run over by cars. It seemed nothing could destroy a Timex watch. The ad campaign was so successful over 5 million were sold by the late 1950s and by the end of the decade one in three watches sold in the United States was a Timex.

The word Timex is synonymous with the word watch. Today, almost anyone asked could remember at one time owning a Timex, or showing one currently strapped to their wrist. In a world full of economic collapse for so many businesses, Timex has proved they are a company that can truly, “take a licking and keep on ticking!”