Timex Atelier Adds Color to the Marine M1a and GMT24 M1a With a Blue Diver and a Pepsi GMT

Timex Atelier is the premium line Timex launched last year, and it was a real gamble. Timex had spent the previous decade rebuilding its reputation with watches like the Marlin and the Q Timex reissue, but those sold for a few hundred dollars. Atelier asked people to pay close to €1,000 for a Timex, with enamel dials, sapphire crystals and Swiss movements to justify it. It worked. The first watch, the Marine M1a diver, sold out quickly, and the GMT24 M1a and a chronograph followed within the year. The Marine and the GMT both launched in black. Now they get some color: blue for the Marine, blue and red for the GMT.

The Marine M1a keeps its 41mm steel case, 13mm thick with a lug-to-lug of 48.8mm. The sides are skeletonized to show a black-coated mid-case, and the crown guards are hollow in profile. It has a screw-down crown, 200 meters of water resistance and a sapphire crystal with three layers of anti-reflective coating. The new blue is used on the enamel dial, the ceramic bezel insert and the rubber strap. The dial has applied silver indices and green-glowing Super-LumiNova on the hands and markers, and the bezel’s dive scale is lumed too. The blue looks amazing.

Inside is the Catena calibre SA100, a Swiss automatic running at 4Hz with a 38-hour power reserve, decorated with Geneva stripes and perlage and visible through a display caseback. You can get it on the blue rubber strap or a steel bracelet that adjusts without tools.

The GMT24 M1a is the more interesting watch mechanically. It uses a Landeron 24, a caller-style GMT, so the 24-hour hand sets independently. That setup suits tracking a second time zone from home more than changing local time on a trip. The new version gets a blue-and-red bezel and a red GMT hand to match, which makes the second time zone easier to read. The dial stays black enamel with applied silver indices and a 24-hour scale.

The GMT’s steel case is 40mm wide, 12.7mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 48.11mm. The lugs are skeletonized and made by metal injection molding, and the mid-case has a gunmetal PVD coating. Water resistance is 100 meters, with a screw-down crown between large crown guards. The Landeron 24 beats at 4Hz with a 40-hour power reserve. It comes on a black rubber strap with a deployant clasp or a steel bracelet.

The blue Timex Atelier Marine M1a (TW6A20400) is priced at €900 on rubber and €1,000 on the bracelet. The GMT24 M1a Pepsi (TW6A20600) costs €1,150 on rubber and €1,250 on the bracelet. See the Marine M1a here and the GMT24 M1a here.