Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Keeping Time with J.Crew's Classic Timex Watch {DIY style}

Me loveth this watch! I have been wearing it non-stop since I got it over the Holidays. Slowly, I am starting to collect the watch straps (up to six besides the black strap that it comes with). ;)

This blog has discussed J.Crew's Timex Military Watch (Item 10884; $150.00) a number of times (refer here, here, & here, as a few examples). There was even a post about a J.Crew Timex comparable watch (refer to the "Keeping Time with J.Crew's Classic Timex Watch {double take}" post.

A big "thanks!" to A who shared her do-it-yourself (DIY) tutorial on creating her own Timex for J.Crew-comparable-watch. The following is her how-to guide:
I was slow to warm up to the Timex Military Watch ($150, 10884), but I loved how Summerilla and DaniBP styled it so I added it to my (already quite long) J.Crew wishlist. I couldn’t justify spending that much on a new watch when I had just received a fairly nice watch from my husband as a birthday gift, so I did some sleuthing to figure out if I could get a cheaper substitute.

I ended up finding the Timex Men’s Metal Field Watch (#T40091) selling for $34.48 on Amazon.com and ordered it to see how close of a match it was. When I received it, I was thrilled to see it was almost an identical match! Of course it came with an absolutely hideous watch band and I wanted to take advantage of J.Crew’s cute interchangeable bands.

I considered taking it to a jeweler to remove the band, but since I knew I was never going to use the existing band, I decided to carefully cut the band off myself with kitchen shears. After removing the band, I put the watch face onto one of the J.Crew watch bands and voila—a Timex Military Watch for less than a third of the J. Crew price!

I’m including a picture of my watch and the version sold on by J.Crew. One difference I’ve noted is the word “Expedition” below “Timex” on my version, and there are a few other small differences, but the measurements and specs are identical, so it’s easy to use the interchangeable bands.
Also, note that Amazon also sells a version of the same watch with a green face, so make sure you don’t order that one if you want the dark gray face (although some people might like the green, it looks like it could be cute!) Anyways, hope this info helps other people who might be interested in duplicating my little experiment!
I have to say that the watches look amazingly similar. What is even better about A's version, besides the price tag, is the calendar date function on the face of the watch. Fantastic!!!

What are your thoughts on the Timex for J.Crew & comparable watches? Do you like the style? Do you own J.Crew's Timex or a similar version? If so, please share! :)

8 comments:

  1. I actually did the same thing! I have the green face because I didn't know it also came in black and white. Now I wish I got the white because the green doesn't go with a lot of the straps.

    As for the original strap that comes with the watch, I just took it out by unhooking the spring bars from the face. Take out the strap and put the spring bars back on. Now you can loop the JCrew straps through. Voila!

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  2. I have the green-face Expedition watch. It looks especially good with the "dark pumpkin" strap.

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  3. I've noticed the white faced Timex on the wrists of a few models in the Collection section online. Has anyone found out when the white faced Timex will be available?

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  4. I've had my watch for almost a year now and wear it regularly. The pumpkin strap Andrew mentioned sounds good, I need to ge another strap. I have the black one and a navy striped one.

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  5. I also did the same thing. I took this Timex Easy Reader Watch I bought at Target and added the bali blue watchband from J. Crew. I think it looks great. The watch has a light silver dial and vintage looking numbers.

    http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/190-2391197-0007218?asin=B000B55AEA&AFID=Froogle_df&LNM=|B000B55AEA&CPNG=jewelry&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

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  6. I also did one with this watch, it has the military look of the J. Crew Timex watch and looks very similar to the one that will be coming out this fall at J. Crew. The band was a little difficult to get off but I managed it and put on a black strap from J. Crew. For $45 each, I made two different watches. Can't beat it.

    http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/190-2391197-0007218?asin=B000B5459Q&AFID=Froogle_df&LNM=|B000B5459Q&CPNG=jewelry&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

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  7. Great Idea! Love the result :)

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  8. i recreated this watch as well, using the actual military version that timex ripped off. it's only $30 and better (imo) than the timex version. here's a link to purchase: http://www.uscav.com/productinfo.aspx?productID=5427&TabID=548

    and here's a link to view it with the jcrew band:
    http://i45.tinypic.com/e15080.jpg http://i49.tinypic.com/r8cu4m.jpg

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