The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
The Heavy Hitters: These fierce competitors made moves to go up against leaders of thriving markets.
This year, there’s been increasing consumer demand for watches, plus more brands have launched in-house resale programs. In September, Timex became one of the first brands to tap into both trends, with the launch of secondhand sales via the Timex Rewound program.
In other moves this year, Timex announced several sustainability goals, like achieving 50% sustainably sourced watches by 2026 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Sustainability at that level is rare in the watch world. Only a few major watch brands, like The Mondaine Group, have reached carbon neutrality so far.
It’s been the duty of Shari Fabiani, CMO at Timex, to oversee the communication and marketing of all of Timex’s new initiatives.
“This year, we launched in Fortnite, and collaborated with Seconde/Seconde and with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we did our first NFTs,” Fabiani said. “But I’m most proud of Timex Rewound.”
While third-party watch resale platforms are common, Timex is among the first circular resale platforms run by a watch brand.
Fabiani said Timex has benefited from its broad, diversified audience. It collaborates with mass-market brands while at the same time releasing high-end watches. Over the summer, it released the Swiss-made Giorgio Galli S2 watch, selling for around 10 times more than the average Timex watch. Timex parent company Timex Group also owns GC Watches and watch licenses for brands including Versace and Missoni.
Fabiani said her next priority for Timex is finding the best way to target young customers, even those younger than the popularly targeted Gen-Z cohort.
“We’re always searching for cultural moments to connect with Gen Z, and we’re starting to integrate Gen Alpha into that, as well,” she said. “We’re not directly marketing to them yet, but we’re strategizing. They will be the next generation of high-value users of consumer products. It’s not that far off.”
Click here to see all 2023 Glossy 50 honorees.
