Timex Q Malibu review - or is this a step too far in the realms of shallow masculinity

Oh dear… this might be a step too far for here.

Disclaimer - I received this watch as a gift from a mysterious benefactor (and disclaimer within a disclaimer - it is a WC user and a very generous and notable one).

What we have is a Timex Q Malibu TW2U81500 - 36mm of pink and turquoise on rose gold. It is marketed as a women’s watch, which might be why you don’t see it around that much on here, but should it?

What do you get in a Malibu Q?

36mm, 12mm thick, 18mm lug width with a slight flare into the case (16mm is not correct Timex ffs), stainless steel case with rose-gold “finish”. With the current (supposed) market trend of “smaller” watches (or normal sized watches if you are well-versed in vintage) this is perfectly reasonable as a size for a gentleman’s wrist.

The style is very “retro”: angular enough to give a masculine edge, soft enough to be feminine, it would certainly be easy to describe as unisex.

Pink dial making you uncomfortable? Good. Better not look at Oris ProPilot or SixtyFive bronzes, and maybe stay away from salmon dials in general. Pink was a boys colour. Real men wear pink.

It is striking, and the turquoise lume on the hands and markers is equally high contrast. It is a statement.

Acryllic glass, 50m water resistance - so far so normal. It’s not a diver, nor is it a field watch. It could be used on the beach, but I’d recommend you don’t, the sand would f**k this up. It is a fashion watch, not a tool.

Movement? Modern Q series watches use a Seiko quartz PC33. It’s not brilliant, but it’s not awful. Accuracy is +/- 30 seconds a month, which I think one can live with. Standard nonsense.

The strap is an expanding affair, with turquoise “enamel” on alternate links. It works. I have a 7 1/2” wrist, it fit ok without too much stretch. As with most expanding straps, it is unfriendly to wrist hair. I have experienced worse, but I do not do expanding straps as a starting point. If you wish to change straps, I would look into one with a slight tapering at the top, 20mm or so, to incorporate better into the case shape, and look less out-of-place. This is my one major gripe here with this watch: effectively the expanding strap is the best option, and it does not look like you can acquire spares or replacements through Timex.

I show my blue one of these as an example:

that is an 18mm blue rubber strap feeding in, but it needs 20-22mm at the top to run the line cleaner into the case. I think the World Timer reissue suffers from a similar issue, but is just released that way.

There is so much missing real estate. I find it very jarring. Perhaps this is what retro is now, just f**k-off lines and angles, which is lazy but as a vintage-head, I’m guessing 70s is not quite my thing.

Whilst we are talking about things I do not like, or are disappointing, the bezel… it forms as a crude GMT (plus point), but in the flesh it is not as legible as the photos. The pink and blue paint washes too much into the rose gold base, of which the numerals are effectively left unpainted. The contrast is not there. If you look to the side of the bezel, between the face and the case, you will see that it is painted pink, which is a nice touch - if little attentions to detail were so important, why can’t I read the bezel? Perhaps the numbers need some sort of edging, or maybe should be painted white or black? It is tricky, but current choice is not great.

So - value. It’s Timex, this is a sliding scale of madness. RRP is £175, but depending on sales and offers, and what phase the moon is in, and which way the wind blows, that discount could be anything up to 70%. Your buy in and mileage will differ greatly upon the price of entry… I did buy an awful quartz beater by Luminox in nuclear green for £200 instead of £589 RRP, so perhaps I could suffer a bold retro statement for £175. I like this watch a lot, honestly, and I am a very blokey bloke. I am built like a lumberjack, and I wear this without flinching. I wear 28mm vintage from the 1940s on my wrists, so 36mm pink dial and rose gold, with Tiffany accents is nothing. Bite me.

So - I would recommend it as a watch package if this is something you want and can handle, because I appreciate how fragile many of you can be over size, colour, brand, movement… Modern Timex is a good product, not like vintage, and I think this is a solid fashion-focused choice from the brand. It’s not high horology, nor is it a tool, it is fun. Perhaps that’s what we all need… a bit more fun.

Fun is also available in other colours…