Timex's New Marlin Chronograph Revives a 1930s Navigator Dial
Timex's revived Marlin has spent a decade growing from a single 34mm hand-winder into a whole collection of 1960s-inspired watches. The newest addition, the Marlin Neo Classic Chronograph, reaches much further back — past the mid-century to a niche navigational dial design that originated in the 1930s.
The distinguishing feature is the pair of dial scales that work with the chronograph seconds hand. The tachymeter scale functions like the modern version found on bezels and chapter rings, converting elapsed time into units per hour. The telemeter scale around the outer rim is the rarer one: it measures distance by timing the gap between seeing and hearing an event, which is why it was useful to pilots and mariners who could see lightning before the thunder arrived. Both scales are color-differentiated from the spiral center scale, mimicking navigational chronographs built by Breitling, Longines, and Angelus through the 1930s and 1950s.
The case is new to the Marlin line. It measures 40 millimeters in brushed stainless steel with angled lugs, curved pushers, and a fluted crown, topped by a domed acrylic crystal that keeps the vintage proportions honest. Two dial variants are offered, and the split is meaningful: the faithful cream dial with red, black, and blue tracks paired to blue and red hands, and a white-centered version with a silver hour ring and a sky-blue telemeter scale with orange and yellow segments. The alternate dial comes only on a brown leather strap, while the cream version is also available on a steel bracelet with flat endlinks and a butterfly clasp.
Pricing lands at $279 on leather and $319 on the steel bracelet, with availability beginning September 22. That puts the Marlin Neo Classic well below the modern reproductions of this dial type, which are almost entirely a luxury-market proposition — most buyers who want a telemeter-equipped navigator chronograph today are looking at four or five figures.
The limitation is the acrylic crystal and the quartz movement underneath it. Neither is a flaw at this price, but both are choices: acrylic scratches and polishes easily, and quartz trades mechanical romance for accuracy and zero maintenance. For a watch meant to evoke 1930s navigation, those are reasonable trade-offs.
Timex launches this reference on September 22 — check current Marlin Neo Classic stock on leather and bracelet.