Timex’s Classiest Retro Watch Is on Sale Like It’s 1969
For more Prime Day watch deals—including the Timex Marlin—start here. For every other worthwhile bargain we’ve found, check our ongoing master list of the best Prime Day Deals so far.
On most days, a gem-set bezel or a wafer-thin mechanical movement from the golden age of watch design can easily run you six figures. On Prime Day, though…well, those nifty features will still cost you a pretty penny. But if you’re looking for a wrist-worthy re-edition for a little less scratch, allow us to formally reintroduce the Timex Marlin, a dress watch straight out of the Mad Men era that happens to be on sale at Amazon right this very moment.
As the first name in American watchmaking, Timex has been churning out stylish timepieces designed for the masses since the mid-1800s. By the 1960s, the brand was known as much for its affordability as for its durability, thanks to “It Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking”—an ad campaign worthy of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the height of its powers.
The Marlin, a line of watches whose name evokes sport fishing, guayabera shirts, and banana daiquiris, was one of Timex’s most popular creations from the era. Refined enough to wear to the office but sporty enough for the weekend, it was as much an embodiment of ’60s style as the TAG Heuer Monaco and Rolex Daytona—but cost a fraction of the price.
In 2017 (the year Paul Newman’s Daytona sold for $18 million), Timex brought the Marlin back just in time to ride the growing wave of vintage watch mania. Unlike many other re-editions, though, which alter the original designs with modern additions like larger cases, date windows, and automatic movements, the new Marlin is gloriously faithful to the original.
Featuring a dainty 34mm steel case (a perfectly respectable size for a men’s watch then and now), a set of funky Arabic numerals on a sunray dial, a leather strap, and a hand-wound movement, the modern Marlin retains all of the design elements that made it a hit the first time around.
