Timex acquired the rights to use the name “Ironman” – a famous triathlon sporting event – in the name of their revolutionary new sports watch in 1986, the result was the Timex Ironman Triathlon Watch, a product that would later become a major historical icon around the world.
The essential design of the much loved sports watch has varied little over the years. The “Lazy D” shape still surrounds the prominent LCD display with rubber ring around the case and two top-buttons all secured by four bolts.
The classic features of the watch including stopwatch chronograph, countdown timer, alarms, basic time and occasion alarm have varied little over the years. This is because those features work and not because Timex have taken their number 1 sports watch for granted, just the opposite in fact, as the classic Ironman has received numerous technical enhancements during two decades plus as the world’s leading sports watch.
The original 1986 Timex sports watch featured a chronograph timer with an unheard of 8 laps memory. The original has now evolved into a complex workout management system, that can accommodate the needs of nearly every athlete.
The first major technical innovation did not take place until 1991, after six years of solid performance on the market and it was a big one! Timex unveiled a new lighting system based on a new electroluminescence technology system that consumed a mere fraction of the power used in other watch’s lighting systems. Known as the “Indiglo Lighting System”, Timex patented the design and have installed it in most of their watches.
A few years later in 1994, Timex, working with Microsoft released the world’s first programmable watch with the ability to connect to a personal computer and to store PDA information such as names and phone numbers, notes and appointments. The Data Link watch also has a much greater lap memory storage ability than most Timex Ironman Watches.
Timex then released an “all-day Indiglo” technology in 1996. It was essentially a reflective blue-green that provided a better contrast between the display background and digital numbers in the display. (But has seemingly now been abandoned by Timex and adopted by competitors).
Timex sports watches have continued to evolve and now feature innovations such as GPS tracking systems, chest-strap heart rate monitoring systems and wireless PC transfer with personal data integration with large, online community information portals.
Perhaps Timex’s most unusual and daring innovations was added to the Timex Sleek product line and is an Optimal Viewing Angle watch known as “O.V.A.” The concept is a watch face positioned on the side or narrow part of the wrist which is more naturally in line with an athlete’s field of view when participating in sport and thus minimizes wrist movement.
Since the early 1980’s, considerable changes and innovations have kept the Timex Ironman Triathlon watch at the forefront of endurance watch technology and with Timex’s commitment to offer athletes every conceivable product and feature they need, chances are, we’ll see many more for years to come.