The Ironman Returneth

Back in December, I wrote about the death of my Timex Ironman running watch. The timepiece itself was still in superb condition, but, after no extraordinary abuse, the resin-formed band had torn in half. Because the band is molded into the structure of the timepiece, it is not replaceable, and the watch becomes useless. It’s a problem I’ve now had with 2 different Timex watches, and it was no less frustrating the second time around.

However, Timex does offer a mail-in “repair” service. It couldn’t be replaced outright because I’d owned it for more than two years. (I forget if their warrantee is 6 or 12 months.) But for only $10, you can mail in your watch – this goes for any watch that Timex makes – and they will give you a new watchband and put it on the timepiece for you. A watch like my old Ironman falls into the “unrepairable” category, but in those cases they send you back a replacement model, or at least a model with similar capabilities.

In effect, you get a new watch for $10.

So, back on January 20th, I sent in my old watch along with a check for $10. Yesterday, five and a half weeks later, I got my new watch in the mail. The old watch model, apparently, is no longer in production. (It seems no Timex stays on the market more than a year.) What I got back isn’t quite as sleek as my old one, but it is identical in every functional way.

The only disappointment is the new watch also has a resin band. I called customer service beforehand and they told me that I could request a Velcro band. But I paid a lot of money for the old watch because of all the functions and features it had, so I was clear that getting something back that matched all those expensive features was more important. I guess they didn’t have anything available with a Velcro band. (Better for that to be true than my request ignored.)

All told – as disgruntled as I still am about the unreliable resin band – it is a nifty little service that Timex offers. I did get a new watch for just $10. I shouldn’t have had to buy a new watch at all, but since I did, better that it cost just $10 instead $100 to replace it.