American watchmaker Timex has teamed up with Fender for three special-edition watches celebrating the guitar company’s 80th anniversary, with designs inspired by two of its most famous models, the Telecaster and Stratocaster.
The most exciting model is the Fender x Timex Automatic 41mm, celebrating the Telecaster with a butterscotch blonde wood-grain dial inspired by the guitar’s famous finish.
It also features a custom Telecaster headstock-shaped seconds hand and Fender branding on the dial and crown.
Better still, it comes with a sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating, 200 metres of water resistance and a unidirectional rotating bezel.
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Flip it over, and you'll find the exhibition caseback with a Miyota 8215 automatic movement underneath Telecaster anniversary artwork.
The watch is finished with a black leather slip-through strap made by S.B. Foot Tanning Co., the historic Minnesota tannery owned by Red Wing Shoes since the 1980s.
Turn up the tone
Things get considerably dressier with the Fender x Timex 37mm, which takes its cues from the Stratocaster.
Timex swapped the wood grain for an iridescent mother-of-pearl dial designed to evoke a Pearloid guitar pickguard.
There's another headstock seconds hand, this time modelled after the Stratocaster, and the crown itself resembles a guitar tone knob.
A domed acrylic crystal and brown S.B. Foot leather strap complete the retro look.
Finally, the 37mm Telecaster Gift Set might be the most overtly Fender-like of the lot.
Its ice-blue dial carries an embossed Telecaster silhouette, matched with bright blue stitching on the black leather strap and another guitar-headstock seconds hand.
It also comes with a second woven strap covered in Fender branding and designed to resemble a guitar strap.
The quartz watch has a stainless-steel case, domed acrylic crystal and 50 metres of water resistance.
And because Timex has properly committed to the theme, every watch in the collection comes with a Fender guitar pick.
The Fender x Timex collection is available now, priced at £225 / $269 (€232 / AU$377) for the Stratocaster-inspired 37mm, £250 / $299 (~€258 / AU$419) for the Telecaster Gift Set and £415 / $499 (~€431 / AU$699) for the Telecaster Automatic.
Shop the Fender x Timex collection at Timex UK and Timex US.
If I had to pick one, I would probably go with the Fender x Timex 37mm, as it still works as a watch even if you couldn't care less about Fender.
The iridescent mother-of-pearl dial looks stunning, and the watch has just enough subtle detail to feel like an anniversary watch without trying too hard.
Plus, it's not the most expensive model of the three, either.
