Timex's $149 Cartier Tank Homage Returns in Polished Steel
Back in March, Timex turned heads by debuting the 1976 Lexington Reissue — a rectangular, two-hand dress watch that plainly flirts with one of the most iconic watch designs ever made, the Cartier Tank. The first run sold out in a flash. Now it's back, and this time the Waterbury watchmaker has made it more versatile: the gold-tone plating is gone, replaced by a polished stainless steel case that's far better suited to daily wear.
The 21mm-wide case measures 36mm lug-to-lug, and the switch to steel creates a subtler contrast with the vertical-brushed metallic dial. The hour and minute tracks remain printed in black, but the diminutive alpha hands now carry a blue coating — a combination that is another hallmark of the Tank lineage, and one Timex pulls off surprisingly well at this price. A flat mineral crystal sits slightly raised above the case, adding visual interest around the dial's border.
Somewhat confusingly, the reissue copies a model Timex originally called the Cavatina, but the real draw has always been the resemblance to the Cartier Tank — one of the most recognizable silhouettes in horology. Timex flirted with this blueprint in 2024 through a Noah collaboration that sold out twice, then hinted at the Lexington's release via a Todd Snyder capsule revealed during his September 2025 runway show. The regular production model then surprised everyone with a Tank-esque Roman numeral hour track wrapped around a rectangular railroad minute track.
At $149, the Lexington sits in a sweet spot that few brands occupy: genuine design pedigree at a price where a Tank is a distant fantasy. Compared to homage-heavy microbrands charging three times as much, Timex brings the heritage name, the distribution, and a two-hand, time-only dial that keeps things appropriately simple. It's the rare affordable watch that makes a genuine design statement rather than a generic one.
The Verdict: The steel Lexington is the best version of Timex's most talked-about release this year — a $149 dress watch with real Cartier energy, now polished enough to wear every day.