Since emerging onto the scene in 2019, the Q Timex family has become a massive success for Timex both in enthusiast circles and the general public, offering trendy angular ‘70s-inspired hooded lug designs at a deeply affordable price point. Over the past three years, Timex has doubled down on the series’ success with a broad range of colorways, alternative case designs, and collaboration models designed in concert with the “Peanuts” franchise and fashion brand Judith Lieber Couture. Outside of a day-date model, however, the Q Timex line has avoided complications and remained true to the simple three-hand spirit of its 1979 forebear – until now. For the first time, the Q Timex series adds a GMT hand to the popular design, bringing together useful functionality and a trio of handsome new colorways. By combining enthusiast-favorite color palettes with a funky ‘70s semi-integrated design and a deeply affordable quartz GMT movement, the new Q Timex GMT series establishes itself as a strong early contender to be the “Watch of the Summer” for 2022.

Like its three-hand counterpart, the Q Timex GMT line’s stainless steel case design measures in at a compact and wearable 38mm-wide. As with the rest of the series, the Q Timex GMT’s hooded lug tonneau case is sharply planar and impressively finished, with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces together with complex chamfers that belie the line’s democratic price point. The three-hand Q Timex’s bidirectional coin edge bezel also returns here, with three new insert options featuring 24-hour scales. The black-coated case variant offers the simplest and most restrained bezel design of the three, with a subtly muted black and slate gray two-tone design. By contrast, the Rolex BLNR-esque blue and black two-tone bezel variant offers a punchier, more dynamic look in images, with a charmingly faded anodized oceanic blue. It’s the “Pepsi” bezel variant that emerges as the clear standout, however, rendering this enthusiast-favorite colorway with a classic grainy anodized finish with warm brick red and a softly desaturated navy blue. As with its three-hand counterparts, the Q Timex GMT line uses a caseback battery hatch system for easy battery changing, but this does limit the somewhat diver-inspired case to a middling 50 meters of water resistance.

For the most part, the Q Timex GMT series keeps its alterations to the line’s signature dial design to a minimum. The original Q Timex’s simple outer minutes track and recognizable set of diver indices remain intact here, but Timex brings the latter of these upmarket visually thanks to a swap from printed to polished applied hour markers. The handset similarly adds a touch of refinement to the familiar lollipop and straight sword arrangement, thanks to a new polished stick seconds hand. Timex renders the main dial surface of all three variants in a simple and versatile matte black, keeping each look timeless in images. The black cased model gives its monochrome layout an injection of energy in images thanks to a blazing red GMT hand with a polished arrow tip but keeps the overall look fresh and modernist thanks to a stark white lume fill. For the blue and black bezel variant, Timex instead opts for a fully polished arrow GMT hand. Once again, however, it’s the “Pepsi” model that steals the show in images, thanks to a sandy khaki fauxtina lume fill and a red arrow-tipped GMT hand that calls to mind some of the most sought-after vintage GMT references.

Timex uses an unspecified Swiss quartz GMT movement to power the Q Timex GMT line. While the brand keeps the details of this movement close to the vest, given the line’s price point a movement like the Ronda 515.24H is a likely option. Although previous three-hand versions of the hooded-lug Q Timex have all used a sharply packaged multi-link steel bracelet design with small, tightly-packaged links, the Q Timex GMT family instead opts for a new bracelet configuration. Featuring a far more gradual taper away from the case and a new twin center link pattern, this revised stainless steel bracelet gives Timex an opportunity to showcase a mix of brushed and brightly polished links in images. The new link pattern also offers a (slight) resemblance to the link layout of the iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak bracelet, which might potentially help to subconsciously reinforce the Q Timex GMT’s semi-integrated design in the minds of enthusiasts. For the black-coated case variant, the brand instead turns to a tropic-style black rubber strap, adding a sense of texture and retro ruggedness to the watch in images.

By blending together a slightly revised design, newly refined visual touches, popular functionality, and a trio of crowd-pleasing new colorways, the new Q Timex GMT series stands out as a genuinely fun and affordable addition to the brand’s fan-favorite product line. All three models in the Q Timex GMT line are available now through the brand’s online sales platform. MSRP for the Q Timex GMT starts at $199 for strap-equipped models and rises to $219 on the stainless steel bracelet, as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.