Welcome fellas! Today I’d like to talk about the very affordable $30 Timex alternative to the $200 Daniel Wellington watch. I realize there’s a lot of strong opinions about this, so let’s get after it. There’s a lot of talk about fashion watch brands and the deeper I dive down the watch rabbit hole, the more passionate and dare I say aggressively opinionated some people can get when it comes to watch brands like Daniel Wellington, Movement and a few others.
Today I’d like to share some of my watch history with you guys so hopefully I can help save you a little cash. Now, if you’ve been around a while, you know I’m not a big watch guy, but I am paying a lot more attention lately and trying to improve my overall watch game. In full disclosure, up until about maybe 2 years ago, I didn’t know squat about watches. All I knew is what I liked and what different designs I was drawn to. I started seeing Daniel Wellington stuff all over Instagram and I really liked the minimal design aesthetic, so I bought one. I had no idea about quality or the mechanics. All I knew is I loved the design and they seemed pretty popular.
Fast forward a little bit and I’ve come to realize that a lot of people are of the opinion that companies like Daniel Wellington are producing watches that are grossly overpriced for what they are. Now, I’m no expert on this and I’m not qualified to really give an opinion one way or another, but feel free to do your own research. I will say that I don’t have anything against any watch brand whatsoever, and I actually still love the clean minimal design of the Daniel Wellington.
With all that said, let me talk about the $30 alternative from Timex. It’s the Timex Weekender Fairfield Indiglo. I bought this watch all on my own with my own money because I wanted something that had a minimal aesthetic while being (in my opinion) a little more respectable.
I’ll leave a few Amazon links down below, but when I bought this from Amazon, it was $27. It’s now $35, but at the time I’m writing this, I found this one for $30. It’s the same exact watch but on a different strap and I like it a lot better than the strap that I got. So let’s check the specs.. The case diameter on the Timex is 41mm, the case thickness is 8.5mm and the lug width is 20mm. The case diameter with the Daniel Wellington is 40mm, a case thickness of 6mm, and the lug width of 20mm. They both use mineral crystal glass, stainless steel case construction and they both use a Japanese quarts movement (although I’m not sure what the differences are in that department). They look very much the same, especially from a distance and fitted with the same strap.
Besides being $170 cheaper, one of the main things I like better about the Timex is the Indiglo face. It’s pretty bright and makes seeing the watch in the dark very easy. For a casual, kick-around, clean minimal watch, it’s pretty hard to beat this for the price. And, if YOU know of another watch brand with a clean aesthetic similar to this, please let me know in the comments.
Now, just to make sure we’re clear, this isn’t a dress watch you’d necessarily wear suited up to a formal event. This is your casual weekend watch and it’s inexpensive enough to not worry too much about. The other cool thing is you can easily change the look by simply swapping out the strap. If you missed the video I made on the few different ways you can attach a NATO strap, I’ll leave a link right here for you to go check out.
Speaking of NATO straps, I recently picked up this set for $15 and I like every single one of them. What I like about these the most is this sleeve. I think it looks a lot better and a lot cleaner than the open ring style. So if you wanna play around with different straps, I highly recommend getting these, so I’ll save you some searching and I’ll put the direct link to Amazon for the 5-pack of 20mm straps I got down below.
So, which one do you like better? Let me know which one and why in the comments. Just a heads up, I’m posting twice every single week, so if you’re not already subscribed to the YouTube channel, I’d love you to take care of that now and join us for the next one. Like I mentioned, drop a comment below and let me know what other watch brands I should check out. I’ll see you in just a few days in a brand new video, so until then, bye for now.
DW – https://amzn.to/2YDcDUj
Timex – https://amzn.to/2Qhh7NI
NATO Straps – https://amzn.to/2JX4JBe
As always, a very good video with good information. I do like cheaper!! And these are very nice looking watches!!
Thank you!