In Review (and Win it): The Timex M79 Automatic

Timex M79 Automatic Watch – $279

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale. A tale of a fateful ship… ment

Look. Things are a mess right now. And here’s one very small example:

• This watch was ordered for an in-person look on August 18th.
• They lost the first shipment. Gone. Poof. Up in smoke. Tracking said it shipped, but it never moved past the second shipping checkpoint.
• Five weeks, three days, and nine emails to customer service later, a replacement watch finally arrived. I had moved house in the interim.
• A few days AFTER it arrived? They refunded me the money.

Got all that?

So now I have a “free” watch.

Great, right?

Wrong.

Throwback diver looks. Just 50m water resistance though. Which is fine.

We have a strict policy against keeping freebies of any kind. It helps keep the trust between us and you guys in the readership what it is.

So just return the watch right?

I can’t.

Bubble crystal and a case with all kinds of angles.

Since it took 38 days to get the thing (or, the replacement of the original thing that was lost), it was immediately outside of the 30 day return window.

And thus, their platform hasn’t let me initiate the return.

And I can’t get a response out of Timex Customer Service at this point. Like, short of standing outside their corporate headquarters in a trench coat with a boombox over my damn head… I can’t get a response.

So screw it. We’re giving it away. If they finally do respond, I’ll tell them I got it, I kept it, and they can initiate a re-charge. We’ll just eat the cost.

Exhibition caseback. Yes those “movement” and “bracelet” stickers come off.

It’s a good watch. I wouldn’t call it a great watch. But it’s a hell of a nice momentum builder for Timex if they do plan on continuing to expand their automatic/mechanical movement selection outside of the Marlin.

It has a good, solid, “it has guts” weight to it. The 40mm case diameter should please plenty, but it’s got a real wrist presence. The domed bubble crystal is cool, but the thickness means it’s not gonna slide easily under many a shirt cuff. Which isn’t an issue, since they’re going for chunky-retro diver here. The bezel has a surprisingly satisfying ratchet action to it. The thing has real snap. It’s not a forgotten piece to the watch. Mesh style bracelet keeps the throwback thing going. Exhibition case-back is a nice touch too. The one drawback? The crown. It’s just okay. A bit dinky, really. It’s as basic as it gets. Feels like it could be a bit larger. Especially for something that can hand wind like this one can. And 50m water resistance, while fine, is just… fine.

Bit of thickness. It has it.

It’s a good watch. But it is creeping up on $300. And at that price, you’ve got plenty of other options in the affordable automatic diver market.

And as they say, timing is everything.

You’d think a watch company would know that.

Enter here to win the Timex M79 Automatic shown in the post above so I can get this dumb thing off my desk. One entry per person. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm ET 10/28/20. Winner will be notified by email. Good luck.

UPDATE: Congrats to G. Warren who won the random drawing for the Timex M79!