Introducing The Timor Heritage Field

The Heritage Field is a faithful recreation of Timor’s WWW watch from 1945 It was famously part of the Dirty Dozen, a collection of twelve watches created for the British Armed Forces during World War II. Seventy-five years later, we built the Heritage Field to pay homage to all of those who wore a Dirty Dozen.

The Timor Heritage Field and vintage Timor WWW watch.

This project was lead by British Army veteran Benjamin A. Briggs with the goal bring back Timor as a modern watch company. The Timor trademarks have traded hands a few times since they shuttered their doors in the 1970s. The brand finally ended up with a boutique Swiss watchmaker. Benjamin approached the family-run business and gain permission to bring the brand to the UK and take ownership of it and offered to help with manufacture. The initial Kickstarter project was fully funded within 24 hours and raised more than £100,000.

The project finished just as COVID forced most of the world to go into full lockdown. However, due to prior preparation and some good fortune, Timor managed to ship watches with very few delays.

Production of the Heritage Field is limited to 300 watches per year, and the Timor have almost sold out this years allocation, and we will begin a waiting list when our current stock is depleted.

The History

1923 - Timor established

Mr Bernheim and Mr Luthy founded Timor in La Chaux-de-Fonds, nestled in the heart of the Jura mountains. Their aim was to provide fine Swiss watches, that where built to stand up to everyday life. By the end of the year, they began to export watches throughout Europe and Timors reputation began to grow.

1930's - "Trust Timor, It's Tested"

Timor focused on expertly testing every watch that left the factory. This focus led to Timor becoming a household name in Britain, Germany and France throughout the 1930s. This reputation was reinforced by the iconic strapline; Trust Timor, It's Tested.

1939 - More Than Meets the Eye

Timor is one of the first watchmakers to build a watch for the partially sighted. Equipped with a hinged opening crystal and brail numerals this allowed the blind to track time in a whole new way.

1940’s - The Military Relationships Begins

At the beginning of world war 2, The British Army needed watches for its troops fighting overseas. They acquired watches from many brands under the new Army Trade Pattern or A.T.P. These watches where often civilian watches slightly modified to meet a the hurried specification issued by the British Army. Timor was one of the few that built a whole new watch just for the British Army.

1945 - A Legend is Born

During WWII, the British Military issued a new strict specification for the first watch that could endure the rigours of the battlefield. This specification is known as W.W.W. Twelve companies fulfilled this order and became immortalised as the Dirty Dozen.

1960's - The Height of Fashion

The swinging sixties saw Timor turn to fashion with a new line stylish minimal dress watches focusing on precious metals at an affordable price.

1970's - The Quartz Crisis

Like many watch brands Timor went dormant due to the increasing pressure from cheap quartz watches.

2000's - Pocketwatches

In the early 2000s, Timor was still recovering from the quartz crisis. Under the new owner, Mr Bolzli, Timor managed to survive to sell pocket watches at a competitive price point, inspired by out heritage designs from the 1940s and 1950s. These pocket watches proved popular in the far east and help bring Timor back from the brink.

2015 - Back To Our Roots

In 2015 we stopped manufacturing pocket watches to re-focused on building the watches that Mr Bernheim and Mr Luthy set out to build when they founded Timor almost 100 years ago. Affordable watches for the everyday. We began work on watch designs based around our most iconic watches from the second world war, the W.W.W and A.T.P watch issued to British troops.

2018 - A New Home in the UK

Timor's ties to the UK have always been strong and in 2018, we decided it was time to relocate our headquarters to the Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England.

2020 - Launch of the Heritage Field 

75 years after the legend of the W.W.W was issued we are proud to release the long-overdue spiritual successor: The Timor Heritage Field.

Technical specifications:

Timor Heritage Field

Limited edition of 300 pieces per year

Case

• Material: Bead-blasted stainless steel
• Diameter: 36.5 mm
• Thickness: 11 mm
• Glass: Domed sapphire crystal
• Lug width: 18 mm
• Lug to lug: 45.5 mm
• Water-resistant to 50 meters

Dial and hands

• Black dial
• White Arabic numerals and beige luminous indices
• Pencil hands covered with beige Superluminova 155C

Movements

• Sellita SW260 / SW216
• Hand-wound calibre just like the original, or a high-grade automatic calibre on buyers choice.

Hand-wound Sellita SW216

• Number of jewels: 24 jewels
• Frequency: 4Hz 
• Power reserve of 42 hours

Automatic Sellita SW260

• Number of jewels: 31
• Frequency: 4Hz
• Power reserve of 38 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours, minutes and small seconds

Strap and buckle

• Black seatbelt nylon NATO strap
• Additional beige and khaki NATO straps with a limited run

MSRP: GBP 950

For more information, please visit timorwatch.com