Small mk watch
The dial fits the military format we’ve seen on other retro pieces such as the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical and Benrus Field Watch. Timex chose a dark green hue for the 24-hour dial, brushed and lumed hands, and a sweep hand with lumed lollipop pip. I’m incredibly pleased that Timex chose not to supersize this watch and make it into some bloated rendition. Judging by the numbers alone, the Timex MK1 Mechanical should be a great one on the wrist. It comes on a two-piece nylon strap with a signed pin buckle and quick release spring bars. This movement sits inside a 36mm stainless steel case with 18mm lugs, a length of 43mm, and 10.5mm of thickness. You read the odd report about non-runners, but this really seems to be the exception. From what I gather, it’s the same movement as in the Marlin and that means that it’s a utilitarian worker. The Timex MK1 Mechanical uses a basic 20 jewel movement that comes out of China. When I say “mechanical,” I am happy to report that it means hand winding. Earlier this Summer, they answered the bell and gave us the Timex MK1 Mechanical. Timex decided to honor these watches with a modern metal version called the MK1 several years back, but it was only available in quartz. A jaunt over to Worn and Wound tells us that Timex was working on something for the government, but these were around for a very short while and in 1982. I guess this is why I grew up thinking that the Timex Camper was an officially issued watch, but it was just a typical watch available at the PX.
#Small mk watch manual
Several of their dads had these plastic disposable manual wind watches in toolboxes and other places. I was surprised by this because, as a youngster, I palled around with a number of kids with fathers who had served in Vietnam.
It took a bit of internet sleuthing to find out that Timex had never really supplied watches to the US Military. Today’s Timex MK1 Mechanical (I mentioned it on a recent podcast with Balazs), though, makes things even more interesting and even got me to break out the credit card. The hand wound Marlin kicked things off several years ago and continues to be a success.
#Small mk watch series
While watches like the Ironman series kept them well afloat, their mechanical watches disappeared. Somehow, though, the company faded a bit during the later ’80s and ’90s. When I was a kid, their mechanical time teacher watch was a typical gift at some point. They were known for making inexpensive, yet durable watches with hundreds of styles. Historically, Timex was America’s version of Seiko. The rise of Timex has to be one of the more fascinating stories over the past several years.
Spoiler alert: for this price, this is about as good as it gets. We take a look at a fun and highly affordable release in the guise of the Timex MK1 Mechanical.