Timex Brought Back Its Sold-Out Affordable Cartier Alternative and Made It Better | Gear Patrol (2024)

Home / Watches / Affordable Watches

Last summer, Timex teamed up with trendy fashion brand Noah for a seriously cool limited-edition dress watch heavily inspired by the Cartier Tank.

The old-school dress watch came on a leather strap and featured a gold-tone case, a white dial with Roman numeral indices and an aperture at 12 o’clock depicting a sun and moon display.

The initial launch of the sub-$200 watch on Noah’s website was plagued with problems, with bots gobbling up every watch in seconds for flippers to sell at inflated prices on the secondary market. To make up for the debacle, Noah opened up a second longer order window to allow more people the chance to buy the watch at retail, while also insisting that the watch would never be produced again.

Noah

Well, Noah and Timex have kept true to their word: They have not produced the Sun & Moon watch again. Instead, the brands have come out with a new affordable Cartier Tank alternative that’s even better than before.

Enter the Moonphase

The new Noah x Timex watch makes some notable improvements over the original.

Last time, the watch was powered by a quartz movement depicting a 24-hour display showing the sun and moon. While fun to look at, this type of complication is sometimes derided as an imitation moonphase, as it’s far less complex to construct. You’ll often see these sun-and-moon displays on cheap Chinese knockoffs of expensive moonphase watches.

This time around, Noah and Timex have opted for a movement with an actual moonphase complication, meaning it tracks the phases of the moon over a cycle of 29.5 days. The new movement also has a date, which the original lacked, that’s incorporated in a classy gold-framed window at 6 o’clock.

Noah

The rest of the watch boasts the same styling as before. The dressy handset is unchanged, as is the rest of the co-branded white dial with its Roman numeral indices and railway minute track.

The rectangular case still looks like a cross between a Cartier Tank and a JLC Reverso, too, with gadroons at 12 and 6 o’clock adding some visual interest. Notably, Noah states on its website that the stainless steel case is actually gold-plated rather than just gold-tone —something I would not have expected at this price point.

Finally, the strap is once again made of leather with an embossed crocodile pattern, but the color has been updated. While the original came on a black strap, this time around the strap is a rich brown with color-matched stitching. The pin buckle is gold-colored to match the case.

Pricing and Availability

As of this writing, the Noah x Timex Moon Phase Watch is still available for pre-order, meaning the brands have managed to dodge the fracas that occurred last time around.

The watch is available exclusively through Noah’s online shop and, just as with the previous edition, is priced at just $198.

That’s a bonkers-low price for a Cartier Tank alternative that looks this good, and the only catch is if you order one, you’ll be waiting a long while before you receive it. The watches aren’t expected to be delivered until June 2025 at the earliest.

Noah

Noah x Timex Moon Phase Watch

Specs

Case Size	37 x 25mm
Movement	Quartz moonphase
Water Resistance	50m

• $198 at Noah

Related Topics