Noah and Timex Dropped Another Instant-Classic $200 Watch

Noah has long been a reliable source of ’90s skater vibes and old-money style. But recently it’s also become known as one-half of the duo behind one of the most coveted watches $200 can buy. If, that is, you managed to cop it in time.

The watch in question was last June’s Noah x Timex Sun and Moon Watch, a gold-toned Tank-style ticker with a sun and moon display and a black faux-croc strap that sold out in a matter of minutes, earning it the title of the Hottest Affordable Watch of the Year (and a subsequent reboot.) Fortunately for the many folks who missed out on that drop, the new Noah x Timex Lighthouse Watch offers a similarly enticing proposition.

With its croco pattern leather strap, slim gold-tone case, and a dial printed with a charcoal drawing of a lighthouse, the Noah x Timex Lighthouse Watch sits alongside the brand’s graphic tees and seersucker suits in the Venn diagram of repentant-skate-rat prep.

Bowen Fernie

Timex x Noah

Lighthouse Watch

Like the brand’s previous Timex collab, it also riffs on one of the most iconic watch silhouettes of the 20th century. As the Noah x Timex Sun and Moon Watch did with the Cartier Tank, the Noah x Timex Lighthouse Watch pays subtle homage to the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, whose rounded case and barely-there hands have been a part of the Swiss watchmaker’s catalog since the 1960s.

For Noah designer Brendon Babenzien, who founded the label with his wife, Estelle Bailey-Babenzien and now also oversees J.Crew’s menswear, the new watch is less about paying homage to an icon of luxury watchmaking and more about evoking the feel of his hometown on Long Island. “​I grew up not far from the Fire Island Lighthouse, and it was always in the backdrop of my life, so I want[ed] a lighthouse on the watch,” he explains.

It’s also the first Noah watch Babenzien plans to cop for himself. “I’m not a big-time watch guy. I’m not, like, anti-watch, but I just never really got into watches the way others have,” he says. “But this is the one I’m going to wear.” Other fans of budget-friendly watches with impeccable menswear credentials should consider doing the same.

The Noah x Timex Lighthouse watch is available for pre-order from June 5th through June 12th. For more timely ticker recommendations, check out the GQ Watch Shop.