Nixon Time Teller Review | The Popular 'Fashion Watch' Worth Considering?
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I have torn apart several popular fashion watch brands on here over the years, for offering cheap junk posturing as ‘affordable luxury’. Will this watch be the same? Today, I’ll be looking at the Nixon ‘Time Teller’.
The Nixon watch brand has been around since the late nineties and they have been an independent brand for most of their existence. They have a big online presence and on the surface, their marketing looks just like MVMT, Vincero and some of the other big offenders that I’ve roasted before.
My first experience with this company is in the form of this retro-inspired minimalist model, nicknamed ‘The Time Teller’. This seems to be their most popular model, so I got Amazon to send me out this one for the sake of this review.
Nixon seems to have a slightly better reputation than some of their competitors, so in this post, we’ll work out whether this is a fashion watch that might actually be worth buying!
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Packaging
The watch arrived in a very lightweight box with an unusual cutout sleeve design. It feels cheap but I’ve certainly not seen this style before, so I thought it was worth a mention.
As you can see, I’ve absolutely gone with the flow and opted for the super blingy green and gold version. I figured if I’m going to wear a fashion watch, let’s go all out and try to fully embrace the look. Nixon do have a wide variety of colourways and designs on Amazon, which I will link to throughout this post.
Dimensions
Size-wise, this comes in with a very modest 37.5mm diameter, 9mm thickness and a 43.2mm lug to lug. Considering that many other fashion brands have gone down the oversized route, typically north of 41mm, this is refreshingly proportioned by 2020 standards. This sits perfectly on my slim 6.25-inch wrist and will give you that classic look even if your wrists are a little larger. It’s a ‘vintage-inspired’ watch that is at least close to vintage sized as well, which can’t be said of many other retro reissue watches.
The dimensions are just one of the reasons that I think this Time Teller is like a better version of a MVMT watch. As we go through this, I think you’ll start to understand why.
Watch Case
So, the case is constructed of the standard 316L stainless steel; which is used in most wristwatches around this price point. This is hovering at about £80 at the time of recording. It features a brushed matte finish throughout the majority of the case, with a simple glossy bezel surrounding the dial and a square overall shape that fits the retro theming very nicely. From a side-on perspective, it does appear quite short and stubby, with the small lugs, but on-wrist, I have to say I think it looks quite good. It’s certainly a more unique design than the incredibly generic aesthetic used by some other brands. Nixon's online portfolio includes a wide variety of different designs, including digital watches, which is nice to see. It doesn’t look like the brand is drop-shipping.
When ordering, I half-expected this to feel like a complete piece of junk; a bit like the Fossil I looked at a few months ago. In-person though, it surprisingly feels quite solid. Ok, the bracelet is very cheap and light; feeling like something on a £20 Casio. However, the main bulk of the watch both looks and feels reasonable for a fashion watch.
The notched case-back provides a solid 100m of water resistance, which is more than enough for everyday use and should remove water damage as a concern, even whilst swimming. Even the case finishing is satisfactory as it features some bevelled edges and a striking insignia on the crown which appears to be encased in some form of domed glass or acrylic.
Functionally, the crown has lower than average grip but is easy to pull out and is responsive when you do get hold of it. The triple gasket used here aids water resistance.
Dial
While brightly coloured, the dial is rather plain. This is fully spartan, with no minute track and just the logo and hour markers present. The logo and indices are applied, but they lay quite flat, so are more subtle than you might expect.
This results in a minimalist look that I’m sure would go down better with the younger generations, as aside from the attractive sunburst effect, the dial is nothing special on a macro level. The hour and minute hands are a little scruffy and there is also no luminescence present, which is a shame considering this watch could take up that everyday watch role.
Watch Glass
Over the dial is a simple piece of mineral glass, which is the basic stuff used in most wristwatches at this price. Some limited scratch protection is what you can expect if you accidentally scuff the watch against something. The bezel extends slightly past the edges of the crystal too, which should protect it from getting clipped and damaged from the side. Whether this is intentional design or not, I’m unsure, however, it’s useful nonetheless.
Bracelet
The bracelet is fully adjustable and the brushed finish looks nice, despite feeling rattly. As you might expect these are folded links and you only get the basic spring-bars rather than the quick-release system. Unusually, the lug width appears to be just below 20mm, making most standard straps a squeeze. Nevertheless, I doubt the target market for this watch would want to change this out anyway.
Movement
So, how well does the Time Teller tell time?
Well, it should be fairly accurate thanks to the Miyota quartz movement, which is the same unit as that found in most rival offerings. I’m not a big fan of these as the second hand seems to have more variance to it than with some alternative quartz movement. Fortunately, the lack of a minute track helps to avoid the frustrating sight of the hand inconsistently hitting and then missing the markers; as if often the case with these cheap movements. This unit does hit the remaining indices when flat but often misses when held vertically.
Is the Nixon time Teller Worth Buying?
My main criteria when it comes to judging a watch that is obviously for ‘fashion’ purposes is quite simple. The watch has to look pretty good and be durable enough to keep looking good across the duration of its ownership, without costing a lot of money.
Most even fail to reach those low heights. The fossil chronograph I reviewed looked extremely cheap and had numerous quality control issues. Other options are renowned for having very poor construction and featuring issues like dirt and dust on the underside of the crystal.
While this Nixon is not the best bang for the buck on the market, it has neither of those issues. The watch looks quite good, the quality control seems to be ok and the materials don’t feel like they’re going to fail on you – which can’t be said for the likes of MVMT. It’s also sized very nicely for average to small wrists, rather than opting for the giant frisbee look and at least gives you some decent aquatic coverage.
For a niche community looking for something that makes a retro fashion statement, it’s probably one of the best choices for under £100. If you’re a watch enthusiast looking for pure value on a material level, you can do better; that Casio Edifice EFV-110D is better finished for a similar price and the Seiko SNK809 with an automatic movement is sometimes available for a similar price in the UK.
Despite this, I know this sort of watch and aesthetic would have appealed to me when I was first getting into this hobby. I think this makes for a better entry point than most of the rival fashion offerings and would make a good first watch gift for a young person, who would probably be quite pleased with it.
