This is the Affordable Timex Hand-wound Watch You Should be Getting

A storied watch player that we see as deeply underrated in the current meta dominated by high-profile collaborations is the American brand Timex.

There are a lot of the uninitiated in the watch hobby who have this notion that a good automatic timepiece needs to be at least $500 to $1000 (P40-60,000), or a pretty penny for most people looking for their first piece of wrist candy.

We thought it was high time for more people to look at the recent reissue of the Timex Marlin in 34 mm, a beloved, hand-wound watch that doesn't get enough praise that we think it deserves.

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The Timex Marlin with a rich chocolate brown dial on wrist

You've probably stumbled upon photos and even mentions of the Marlin during the obligatory online digging efforts for automatic pieces that don't break the bank, and this is for a pretty damn good reason.

The watch's legacy dates back to the swingin' sixties when Timex used to be called the US Time Corp. The Marlin was one of the most popular watches of the era due to how understated and how enduring the design is even as eras pass.

Timex refreshed the Marlin back in 2017, which was a big move for the company, as it was its reentry into the mechanical watch space after 30 years of prioritizing quartz-powered, affordable watches. That's not to say this is Timex' only decent watch, as we've sung praises for the sleek panda dial Q Chronograph that made it to our Esquire Essentials list last year.

It is also pretty rare to find an honest-to-goodness manual wind watch for about P15,000 (the Marlin often goes for about P12,000 when on sale).

Watches back then stuck to a sleek 34 mm case dimension since bigger-dialed dive watches weren't as run-of-the-mill.

A silver-toned dial variant of the Timex Marlin

You get a domed acrylic crystal as protection (rare for watches to go for the much more durable mineral crystal option at this price point) and hour numerals on a glossy silver or chocolate brown dial with an endearing retro-inspired curvilinear font for an added dash of vintage flair. The reissued Marlin also sports a sleek bezel, the hand-wound unnamed movement (which is most likely a Seagull ST6 derivative), and a faux lizard-skin strap.

So in case you haven't figured out how a manually wound watch works, you wind the crown until you feel a slight resistance once a day in the morning before you put it on (preferably at the same time every day). Typically the crown would by default be in its normal, pushed-in position, which you have to rotate clockwise about 20 to 30 times and stop immediately at that resistance point (since a lot of these pieces can be wound). Your fully wound Marlin will run for about 40 hours.

The Marlin, and its many quirky variations, is the quintessential automatic wristwatch that evokes that timeless vintage flair that bears that bang-for-your-buck value and is made of much sterner stuff than a lot of the gimmickier options that push timekeeping and complications to the background.

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