Having a hard time deciding between the Apple Watch Series 6, the Apple Watch SE, or a heavily discounted Apple Watch Series 3? Why not go with none of the above and let Timex take you back to a time when digital watches weren’t harassing you with notifications all day long and were desperate to emulate the look of traditional analogue timepieces.
Timex’s Q Series features a collection of the company’s watches dating back to the ‘70s and ‘80s that have been reissued for modern audiences who either missed them the first time around or are feeling nostalgic about a timepiece they owned decades ago. The latest addition is the Q Timex Reissue Digital LCA with “LCA” being short for Liquid Crystal Analogue. There was a time when companies making quartz watches tried to bridge the gap between analogue watches that used simple moving hands to display the time and digital watches featuring multi-function screens packed with various complications. It’s hard to believe that simply adding a digital analogue watch face would convince any traditional watch lover to jump ship to a digital timepiece, but in some ways the effort did help digital watches look slightly more professional, and dare we say, classy?
The Q Timex Reissue Digital LCA is available again with a stainless steel case and strap, but updated with a gold-tone alternative which, of course, doesn’t actually feature any real gold. Functionality is exactly the same as the original with a faux analogue face in the upper left corner, a digital time display across the bottom, and extra features including a stopwatch, a countdown timer, daily alarms, and water-resistance to 30 meters.
Long after the original Timex Digital LCA was available the company developed its Indiglo backlighting technology that used an electroluminescent panel to make its watches appear to glow in the dark. But because the LCA pre-dated this tech, Timex has decided the reissued version should too, so the Q Timex Reissue Digital LCA relies on a single tiny side bulb to illuminate its screen, which Hodinkee found to be just as awful and ineffective as you remember them being. Is retro charm worth $240+ to you? If you happen to catch one on sale you can probably find an Apple Watch Series 3 for a similar price to what Timex is asking, but to its credit, the Timex’s LCA screen does remain on all day and night.