NWA: Timex's Malibu Dream Watch (tm)

I'm not lying! It's literally from "The Malibu Collection"!!!

Is pink going to be the trending dial colour of fall 2023? Let me convince you that this watch is really androgynous:

• Look closer. Pink and blue are actually in equal balance

• 36mm case size is thoroughly unisex and looks great on a man

• While the bezel is a true Barbie pink, the rest of the metal is copper toned

• The copper-and-blue expansion band really has more of a southwestern look than anything else

It may still be a little edgy for some people... I admit I bought it as a piece of campy pride parade wear. But if you like compliments and attention, my early experience is that this one is right up there with my Swatches for being noticed in public.

Major Features

The "Perfect Fit" (tm) expansion band is awesome. Timex says that it can be easily adjusted at home without any tools, but unfortunately it came out of the box as a perfect match for my 6.5" wrist, so I didn't get to experience it for myself. There are a bunch of non-expanding links around the backside which I believe are removable.

Quartz day-dates are awesome. If you're reading this, you're a watch collector, and that means you own watches that spend more than 1 week off your wrist. Do you really ever want to have to reset the day of the week? This watch doesn't have a day-of-the-week quickset because it doesn't need a day-of-the-week quickset. I know there will be days where I pick this out of the drawer over a dead mechanical just because I'm lazy.

Attention to Detail

What does Timex have in common with a luxury brand? You should buy this because you like the history and the design team, not on the specs. Because even though it's made in China, it still doesn't stack up to a competing $200 Chinese watch:

(How can this be possible? Think about how good Timex's distribution is. When you're in every Wal-Mart, you don't need to compete on feature richness and craftsmanship.)

• The case finishing is a little mushy.

• The turquoise lume on the hands looks amazing, but the same material is inexplicably not used on the indices, which don't glow at all. Maybe this is more true to the vintage original, but I don't like it.

• Glass crystal. (In my opinion, who cares - you're a watch collector, anything you own will be lucky if it leaves the house long enough to get scratched. The top hat shape is awesome.)

Here are some details I really like:

• Unlike my Swatches, the movement hacks. Not doing this is my #1 quartz deal-breaker. Well done.

• The yellow second hand is a great colour choice. I feel like by this point in the post, you already have your own opinion about this colour scheme and it's too late for me to convince anyone, but for being such a highly saturated product I think it has a surprising amount of cohesiveness.

• The friction bezel has a perfect tolerance and is much less crappy than a Vostok.

• The battery compartment can be opened with a coin.

And one thing that's obviously ridiculous:

• The second time zone bezel is useful, and the bicolour aesthetic is pretty, but the combination of the two doesn't make any practical sense at all.

Verdict: The colours are bold, but nobody thought that the other Timex Q's were unsuitable for male wear, and the copper tone is quite handsome. Give it a try if you want to have some fun for less than the cost of servicing one of your other watches.