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Timex keeps the small seconds on the new 39mm Waterbury Classic, US$395

Timex's refreshed Waterbury Classic line adds a 39mm small-seconds model at US$395, with three cheaper versions alongside it.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 11 August 2026

The extra wheel that drives a small seconds hand costs a brand real money, which is why it is usually the first thing struck off a budget dress watch. Timex has left it in. The new Waterbury Classic sets a sub-dial at six in a 39mm steel case, wears the reference TW2Y91800, and asks US$395.

It appeared on Timex's own store on 7 August, part of a broader refresh of the Waterbury Classic line. Three more arrived across the same two days: a 40mm on leather at 148 dollars, a second leather three-hander for the same money, and a 40mm on a steel bracelet at 210.

Metallic blue on a patterned silver dial

A fine repeating pattern covers the whole dial, with the small-seconds register sunk into it at six. The indices are applied, the handset is heavy, and both are metallic blue. Blue on textured silver is old dress-watch furniture and it still holds up, mostly because blue reads at a glance without making a fuss about it.

The size is the argument for this one over the 40mm pieces in the same refresh. Thirty-nine millimetres gives the sub-dial somewhere to sit, so the lower half of the dial never feels packed.

Where the 395 dollars doesn't go

The crystal is slightly domed mineral glass rather than sapphire, and at 395 dollars in 2026 that stings. Spinnaker's Solar Wave landed the same week for exactly the same money, and that one is an automatic diver with a sapphire crystal and 150 metres of water resistance. Mineral picks up the sort of scratches you notice, which counts for more on a watch that spends its life against a cuff.

The case and bracelet are stainless steel, brushed and polished. Timex has gone all steel here, with no leather option on this reference. The listing says nothing about the movement, the thickness or the water resistance.

What 39mm and a sub-dial are worth

At 148 dollars the leather Waterbury Classics in this refresh are as easy to recommend as they have always been. The 39mm at 395 takes more thinking about, and the crystal is the whole reason.

Proportion is the case for it. A 39mm watch with small seconds and applied markers is a genuinely useful thing to own, and under 500 dollars there is less of it about than you would expect once the quartz pieces with printed dials come off the list. Twenty dollars more on the crystal and this would be a straightforward yes.

All four are up on Timex's US store. What the 39mm costs in Australian dollars, nobody's said yet.