> Brands change, particularly fashion brands. Many high-end brands become debased and low end brands slowly scale up in quality to become high-end a decade later.

My wife and I have noticed this kind of trend with fast food. At one time, certain fast-food brands were considered "higher-tier" than other fast-food brands, but over time, they have swapped places (in some cases more than once).

The only ones which seem to "stay where they are" have been McDonalds (not for trying, though) and Taco Bell (they know their spot and market - smart choice, I'd say).

The others seem to migrate around, depending on the market, etc.

All good points, but they should have selected a non novelty grade movement to start out with. Landfills and warehouses are filled with this type of corporate vanity product that failed to deliver.

Beyond that, Timex is a brand name relegated to disposable $20 watches. Trying to fluff up their mind share with a poorly made and laughably priced product is not going to work out for them.

> novelty grade movement

It's from Ronda and it's a good movement.

It's a $20 retail movement in a $500 watch. It's many steps away from the quality of a similarly priced Seiko product.

The point of this watch is that it's assembled in America with decent labor conditions. I think that's probably why they went with a Swiss movement rather than one from Seiko or Citizen. Perhaps Seiko's environmental and labor practices are part of the reason their watches cost less.