TGIF: Do "Retro" Watches Already Live Among Us?

Every few days, you'll see an article in the watch press or on a company website trumpeting the return of watches from the past.  Companies will be said to dig deep into their catalog of prior timepieces to develop new retro watch offerings.  An example of a wonderful retro watch would be this Citizen Quartz Stainless Steel Classic.

Citizen Stainless Steel Classic Quartz Watch (Amazon Photo)

Since these retro offerings provide us with some of the coolest watches, I don't want to disparage or discourage them in any way.  But, I think a parallel movement in the market might be just as important. The classic retro styles have been worked into hundreds of commonplace quartz watches with little fanfare.  

You can get Retro for Cheap At Walmart

As an example, let's check out the George quartz watch that I recently purchased from Walmart.

A George brand quartz wristwatch from Walmart.

This watch (above) was created and manufactured by FMD for the George brand of clothing and accessories sold at Walmart stores.  It is a very simple watch with painted numerals on the dial for hour markings and simple dots for minute markings.  It has a silver-on-silver motif with black numerals.  It retails for somewhere between $10 and $13.  It reminds me of my old Timex (below).

Timex Mercury Wristwatch

While this Timex was quite a bit more expensive back in its day at $25.95 and comes with the date-day complication, it also features painted on numerals, a silver-on-silver design, and an expansion bracelet.  Just like the George watch, this old Timex was focused on telling the time.

Another recent retro watch find was this Caribbean Joe Green Sunburst watch.  It has a slightly domed crystal and classic batons to mark the hours.  It's the kind of watch that used to be commonplace once upon a time.  But, now, it's a cheap, quartz, fashion watch.

A Caribbean Joe Retro Watch

I've been writing about retro watches or neo-classic watches for a long time.  It's a trend that has legs.  This post is just a reminder that, if you want retro, you can get plenty of retro for a very low price and you don't even have to clean the funky stuff off of an estate sale watch find.  The Retro watches are here among us already!