Originally posted April 12, 2019
What would you do with one extra hour every day? Sleep? Work? Spend quality time with your family? I’d like to say I’d do all of that, but it’s more likely I’d squander those precious moments shopping for more watches, because the minute Timex announced its 25th Hour Watch, that is precisely what I did, snapping up a gray men’s model for this review.
In late March, Timex released teasers on social media about a revolutionary new product. Many assumed this would be the Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-System (MEMS) nanotech movement that Timex announced in 2017 with an anticipated 2019 release. When the big announcement appeared on April 1, it was clear that we’d been had. Timex claimed that after generations of research, they had discovered a 25th hour in the day and created a watch to reflect it. Corporate April Fools jokes rarely work, but as I clicked through the announcement and watched the charmingly earnest video, I wondered if perhaps they had taken it all the way to production. A Bum’s gotta know.
The product page looked legit. Two models were offered, a 34mm women’s with a silver dial and a rose gold case, and a gray/gunmetal 40mm men’s. It had a very Timex price of $79. The only caveat was that it would only be available for 25 hours. I clicked “add to cart,” and it didn’t send me to an “April Fools!” page. I added the usual Timex 15% coupon, and it took that too. For $67.15 and free shipping, why not? I bought it. A couple of hours later, it was sold out.
I told Mrs. Time Bum about it that night. “So they made a watch as a joke,” she said, “and you actually bought one?” It’s nice to know I can still surprise her.
As stated on the case back, the 25th Hour Watch is a variant of the Timex Standard Model. It measures 40mm wide, 9mm thick, and is water resistant to just 30m. The case is coated base metal with a stainless steel back, wire style lugs, signed crown, and a 12-hour quartz movement. Sorry. It does not keep 25-hour time or jump past the nonexistent hour. This may be bad news for the joke but good news for the watch as you can use it if you simply ignore the prominent 25-hour index. They even provided a 12-hour index on the perimeter, just beyond the railroad minute track.
Dial printing is on par with other Timex watches, which is to say, a little spotty under a loupe, but just fine for normal use. You wouldn’t expect all those printed black markers to light up, and they don’t. Instead, you just push the crown and bask in Timex’s cherished blue Indiglo light.
Twenty-five numbers don’t squeeze onto a dial easily, so Timex gave us just the evens plus 25, highlighted by a tangerine orange wedge that matches the baton handset. The 6 o’clock position (or 12 on a standard 24-hour dial) is instead half past noon, throwing the lower half off in a way that is not helped by the cluster of teens at the bottom, creating the illusion that the gaps between the markers are smaller than at the top, even though they are not. They could have sidestepped it by only using hash marks, but that is hardly the point. Awkwardness is part of the gag.
And yet, I dig it. The gray dial, black markers, and lurid orange look fantastic together. The bold wedge reminds me of a “radio room” dial. The gunmetal case anchors the dial nicely. I appreciate that they matched the finish on the signed crown and buckle as well — a detail overlooked surprisingly often by folks who are designing watches that are intended to be taken seriously.
The strap is 20mm wide on quick release pins and made from the same SB Foot leather as Timex’s Red Wing offerings.
As mentioned above, both men’s and women’s versions sold out long before the 25-hour deadline was up. Timex is taking emails in case they make more. Frankly, I hope they don’t. After all, they implied that the 25th Hour would be a limited edition which would make the one in my hand a potential collector’s item. Also, because that kind of joke is only clever once. But I do hope they use this same general layout and color wedge for a conventional watch. The 25th Hour Watch may be silly, but it is also a surprising testament to the strength of Timex’s design team.
For more information or to sign up for product announcements about another batch of 25th Hour Watches, visit Timex.com/25thHour. ⬩
