There are two streams in the watershed of watch nerdery that I’ve frequently encountered as someone with a fondness for affordable tool watches. The first is the yearning for Timex to move into the market segment vacated when Seiko raised their prices a few years back – let’s call it the affordable enthusiast space. The second is the desire for the proverbial grab-and-go quartz beater, something more interesting than the stereotypical mall watch but still low-maintenance and low-cost. The former is a lament of the ever-increasing commodity prices of our times, the latter is at worst a good excuse to hunt for a new watch. Recently, Timex has found solid footing at the confluence of these streams with their Deepwater collection.
If you’ve paid attention to the horological hype circuit the past couple of months, you’ve likely read, listened to, or watched discussions about the titanium automatic version of the Timex Deepwater Reef, and with good reason. A sub-$500 titanium automatic watch from a big, legacy brand is a contender for the brown manual station wagon of the watch world – a combination of niche, desirable qualities rarely, if ever, observed in the wild.
I’m not here, though, to add to that hype train. Nay, I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him, as I find the quartz-powered, sub-$200 version of the Deepwater Reef the more interesting value proposition and one that is more in line with Timex’s identity, two hallmarks of which are quartz movements and robust capability. While other brands were trying to stay afloat, and frequently failing to do so, following Seiko’s introduction of mass-market quartz movements, Timex became an early adopter with the Q line. The move didn’t just keep the brand from drowning but helped make Timex watches an affordable icon by the 90s when, as a kid, I first fell in love with watches.
Beyond the movement, the distinctions between the automatic and quartz versions of the Deepwater Reef are minimal, as they share much of their design and dimensions. Both are 41mm in diameter with 22mm lug widths, but the quartz movement’s thinness allows it to shave 1mm from the automatic’s 13mm height. They each use sapphire crystals, and if you opt for the black version of the quartz Reef, you’ll also get a titanium case like the automatic. All Reef models are dive rated to 200m, and are equipped with unidirectional, 120-click, 60-minute count-up bezels – fully lumed on the automatic, and lumed at the pip for the quartz. Timex also used Superluminova for the handset and hour markers across the Deepwater Reef range, and while they don’t specify which type, the green glow suggests C3.
For this blue quartz variant, the case is made of recycled stainless steel. I’m not sure if Timex chose the case metal for stylistic reasons, but the brightness of steel better complements the deep blue of the dial and bezel insert than titanium’s subdued, darker tones. The case is the familiar H-shaped skin diver style and is horizontally brushed along its flanks and top, with those surfaces separated by a polished bevel that tapers outward toward the lug tips. It has a nice bit of machining where the long bevel along the 12-6 axis of the case meets its shorter counterpart atop the lug tips. There’s a sharp angle where the chamfers meet, and the bevels and their intersecting angle all follow the curves of the case. The angled crease sits just inboard of the angle where the case flanks meet the outer vertical face of the lug tips – it would’ve been perfect if those two break points lined up, that they don’t is excusable on a watch of this price.
The crown at 3 o’clock is easy to operate thanks to its large size and deep perimetric grooves. All Deepwater Reef models have a rounded arrow on the outer surface of the crown to guide and remind the wearer to screw the crown in. At first, I saw this as a non-offensive but excessive design quirk, but my perspective shifted the more I thought about the broad market for the Deepwater range. I assume the majority of watch enthusiasts would know what a screw-in crown is, and why it is important to actually seal it properly, but that awareness is less likely for buyers outside the enthusiast space, for whom the visual cue will be a helpful reminder.
The dial surface is comprised of two levels – a sunken outer portion that houses the 60-mark track for minutes and seconds printed in white, and the inner raised portion that contains the hour markers and dial text. The colors for these two segments are slightly different, or appear so due to the different finishing for each surface, but the difference isn’t easily noticeable given the narrowness of the sunken outer ring. That outer segment has a flat, matte finish while the inner portion of the dial bears an engraved wave pattern that is just slightly glossier on its raised surfaces. I’d prefer something less busy, like an eggshell finish with a slight sheen, but the wave pattern is still a nice, if not wholly original, touch that evokes the oceanic sporting intentions of the Deepwater Reef range.
Affixed atop the waves are a combination of circular and rectangular lumed hour markers familiar to anyone who has seen a dive watch before. The green hue of the plots contrasts nicely with the deep blue dial, and the simplicity of the design for the hour markers and outer 60-hash scale makes the watch easy to read. Further aiding the Deepwater Reef’s legibility are the bold, modern hour and minute hands, with which the design team did a nice job avoiding strict adherence to vintage design cues. The house and minute hands are semi-skeleton trapezoidal paddles with broad lume channels, with a bright sandblasted metal finish. The seconds hand skews closer to vintage inspiration, but adds its own boldness with orange paint and a massive triangular counterbalance that is somewhat comically oversized, yet doesn’t detract from the overall design. Dial text is fairly minimal, of which I’m always a fan. The Timex and Deepwater wordmark logos sit above the pinion, both done in modern fonts, and water resistance is noted below the pinion.
Beyond knowing the movement is quartz, I’ve come up empty in trying to identify which quartz movement makes the Deepwater Reef tick. Whatever the movement is, it proved to be reasonably accurate and reliable, the latter confirmed with an unintentional drop test. The seconds hand hits about as many marks as a drunken archer, but I’ve seen quartz watches thrice the cost of the Deepwater Reef perform similarly. Fortunately, the Deepwater Reef doesn’t have the infamous Timex tick that is audible from across the room, and only seems to gain in strength during the darkest hours of night. In short, the movement does what is needed, within reasonable expectations for the price range.
Similarly, the lume performance is decent, if not exceptional. The hands and the lume pip on the bezel shine brighter than the hour markers, but there’s enough glow across all these elements to accomplish the functional intent. It is acceptable performance for a roughly $200 quartz watch, but I’d be disappointed if the performance is the same on the automatic model, given the higher price point.
The lumed pip resides in a nicely executed bezel insert with a fully graduated scale, beautiful deep blue hue, and eggshell finish that plays with light but avoids looking cheaply shiny. The design is deeply reminiscent of Seiko’s dive watches, but like the dial’s hour markers, if you’re going to borrow designs, borrow from the best. The bezel’s coin edge makes it easy to operate, and the action is auditorily light and mechanically precise.
Strap options are limited and dependent on which version of the quartz Deepwater you purchase. The titanium-case versions are available with either a black or yellow rubber strap, and this blue stainless-cased option only comes with a blue rubber strap. It isn’t a bad one, but there are a couple of elements that motivated me to quickly pivot to aftermarket straps. First, I don’t like straps that have branding on their outer surface, and this one has Timex scribed boldly along the portion facing away from the wearer. Second, Timex has utilized an atypical means of retaining the excess portion of the strap that extends beyond the buckle that trades a second keeper for a gap that you insert the overhanging material into. I found it uncomfortable and not particularly easy to use. Fortunately, the aftermarket provides abundant options for 22mm straps.
There is a one single-time zone quartz version of the Deepwater range – a black colorway with a steel case – that comes with a bracelet for an additional $20. I haven’t experienced it in person, but nothing about the word combination of “straight-end Timex bracelet” piques my interest. It may be fine, but it also may remove every arm hair it touches. I recommend your purchase be guided by the combination of case metal and colorway that you prefer and let the aftermarket handle strapping the watch.
What is it about the Timex Deepwater Reef Quartz that has captured me so? Perhaps it is that I’m in the quartz phase common to many watch collectors, when practical ease at times supersedes romanticism for the whirling machinery of mechanical movements. There’s also the context of our times to consider – everything has grown more expensive the past few years, altering the relative sense of what is affordable. As many companies are chasing increased profit margins, Timex has provided a middle space between its lower-cost, less-robust, entity-level analog watches, and the higher-cost mechanicals that have proliferated through their lineup since the relaunch of the Marlin several years ago. The quartz Deepwater Reef is the rare attainable watch that can be of interest to new and seasoned enthusiasts, and to the non-enthusiast who is looking for a reliable, worry-free timepiece. Timex has managed to strike a difficult balance here, and in so doing have answered the call emanating from the watch enthusiast community for years.
