Unless your head has been up your ass for the better part of the calendar year, you are already in the know about the Timex Oversize Camper. It popped up on GQ, Por Homme, Hypebeast, Selectism, Sartorially Inclined and most of the other sites you read while pretending to work. All this coverage is great for Timex and their little-military-watch-that-could, but it made the Timex Oversize Camper jump the shark faster than Three’s Company. But that was April and this is now, so hopefully the hype has died down. Not to mention the fact that, even with all this coverage, no one had any real world shots or experiences with the watch itself. The Internet hype machine was just regurgitating the same olive drab marketing picture over and over and o…you get the idea. Regardless of all the reasons not to, I pulled the trigger.
I bet on black. It’s not that I’m not a fan of the olive drab, but the black got nowhere near as much coverage as it’s camo counterpart. I also wanted a simple, inexpensive, stereotypical black number to offset the growing number of rubber, silicone and/or ridiculously colored watches in the box. Or maybe this is all just me rationalizing because Nordstrom didn’t have the olive one in stock.
After dropping a little over $50 on it two weeks ago, I’m still on the fence. Is it oversized? Only in the same way you are after Thanksgiving. Compared to your former self, sure, you’re a little bigger. It will fade in a few days, and even then it’s only a difference of 2mm (watches are measured in mm; turkey guts in inches). Don’t forget the fact that most standard watch measurements factor in crown as well, so the whole 42mm the Oversize Camper is packing isn’t really anything to write home about. If you’ve ever worn something like a Nixon 51-30 – or you have big wrists – this watch will seem downright tiny.
The only real gripe I have with this watch is the ticking. It’s fucking loud. We’re talking loud to the point it will haunt you in your sleep Tell-Tale Heart level loud. You get over it after a while, but every once in a while it creeps up out of nowhere and forces you to reconsider your previously permanent attachment to your own wrist.
Was it too hyped to begin with? Probably. While I agree with Michael Williams and L.A.S. about most of their points, it’s still a better alternative to some of the other options (including other Timex offerings) in this price range. If you need a sleek watch that’s going to grab some attention, this is still one of your best bets.
$50 at Nordstorm: Black / Olive
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