Why Timex Is the Best Watch for the Money

“If I say to an American person, ‘It takes a licking,’ they will continue the phrase,” said Silvio Leonardi, an Italy-born executive at the Holland-based parent company of Timex. Leonardi is its senior vice president of international markets, and his mission is to keep Timex ticking as a worldwide style item.

Some of us have always known Timex to be, in cultural terms, the best watch money can buy. Historically, the brand has stood for no-nonsense, all-American classicism, offering an escape from the status-watch game. George W. Bush wore one as president to shore up his common-man bona fides—notwithstanding that a Timex is also a totem called out in The Official Preppy Handbook.