Our History

TIMOR ESTABLISHED in 1923

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 were built to stand up to everyday life. By the end of the year, they began to export watches throughout Europe and Timor's reputation began to grow.

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.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Timor is one of the first watchmakers to build a commercial watch for the partially sighted in 1931. Equipped with a hinged opening crystal and braille numerals this allowed the blind to track time in a whole new way.

A.T.P

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 were 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.

W.W.W

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.

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.

THE QUARTZ CRISIS

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

POCKET WATCHES

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 our heritage designs from the 1940s and 1950s. These pocket watches proved popular in the far east and help bring Timor back from the brink.

BACK TO OUR ROOTS

In 2015 we stopped manufacturing pocket watches to refocused 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 watches that were issued to British troops.

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.