The 80,000-square-foot headquarters of Timex, the iconic American Watch company, designed by Fletcher Thompson, Inc., and opened in 2001, is under threat of demolition. The multiple award-winning building combines modern design, open floor plan democratization, and blends into the natural landscape.

History

Established in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company, in Waterbury, Connecticut, known as “Brass City.” The company mass-produced clocks that were affordable for every family. By the turn of the century, inexpensive pocket-watches were being sold to millions. Fifteen years into the new century, the wristwatch was the primary method of telling time and the primary product the company made. In 1942 the company retooled to become an important defense contractor making timed bomb fuses and moved to neighboring Middlebury, Connecticut.

After the war effort, watchmaking resumed, and Timex established itself as one the few American companies that consistently remained in business for more than 170 years. At its height, Timex was the largest selling watchmaker in the United States. Its tag line: “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking,” endures to this day. Timex was a mainstay of American culture for many of the decades in the 20th century by capitalizing on technical trends in both manufacturing and marketing. It was one of the earliest adopters of television advertising and participated in joint marketing with many of the major consumer brands and celebrities including Disney and Bob Hope. The company prevailed over the technological and competitive challenges in the consumer retail sector throughout the decades by designing affordable analog and digital watches. By the 1990s, Timex was the only surviving independent watch manufacturer in the United States. Today, the company manufactures luxury watch brands such as Versace, Ferragamo, Missoni, as well as its Timex brands watches, leveraging the timepiece as a fashion accessory movement.

Timex Campus 

The two-story, 85,000 square foot building is an excellent example of 21st-century corporate architecture, constructed as an administrative and design center for the international watchmaking company. Fletcher Thompson, Inc., designed the building, and Jack Curtis + Associates rendered the landscape plan and design. The building features a long rectangular plan with convex south façade; a vaulted dome roof with oculus; and walls of transparent insulated glass, which allow for a panoramic exterior view of the site and picturesque environment. Constructed to match the contour of the site’s natural drumlin, or ridge, the lower level of the building with main entrance is set 15-feet below grade. This allows for the building’s low profile and reflective exterior wall-glazing system to appear as an organic element part of the surrounding natural landscape, disguising the building as a one-story structure from most vantage points.

The architectural approach for the headquarters changed the paradigm of how buildings can be more than a "container" of a company. The open 45,000-square-foot main office floor was conceived without walls to inspire collaboration and teaming among the Timex Headquarters staff of 250 individuals. Minimal use of permanent partitions allows for broad diffusion of daylight within the building. Timex’s corporate identity as a watchmaker is physically manifested through the main floor design with a “Meridian Line” that runs through the center of the room, along the building’s true north orientation. An oculus in the south end of the domed roof filters a band of sunlight onto a solar calendar consisting of bronze medallions in the office floor. This interior time-tracking feature marks solstices and equinoxes and incorporates the company’s long history in the measurement of time and timekeeping. We believe its Meridian Line makes it likely the only office building in the United States and perhaps globally, that is a functioning example of the very product the company itself makes.

Current Threat

In 2020, Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund, acquired a majority interest in Timex. In July of 2024, Timex signed a lease to move its headquarters to Shelton, Connecticut; the move is expected to occur in the latter part of 2024 or early 2025.

Baupost sold the property and building in 2023 to local developer Drubner Equities, which plans to build a speculative distribution center, consisting of two buildings that total 650,000 square feet. As part of the plan, the Timex Headquarters will be demolished.

The distribution plans include demolition of the entire building, as well as the surrounding campus property. The drumlin will be excavated, existing wetlands will be destroyed, and up to 12 million square feet of earth will be unnecessarily removed.

Middlebury residents universally oppose the distribution project, which includes citizen-led lawsuits to stop the project. Over the years, former Timex employees like Bob Byrnes have shared their appreciation of the unique design of the building on social media. Byrnes – who retired after working at Timex for 37 years – said it was a beautiful place to work. Upon seeing the new headquarters for the first time, he said out loud: “Wow, look at this place.” Byrnes far preferred the new space and the grounds to the typical four-walled environment of the prior offices.

Earlier this year after many months of research, a group of citizens established Save Historic Middlebury, Inc. (SHM), a new non-profit with a mission to preserve historic Middlebury structures through advocacy and action and by working with local government to enact preservation laws. Unlike most towns in the state of Connecticut, Middlebury does not have any preservation laws.

SHM is launching a multiprong effort to save the Timex headquarters from demolition. In August 2024, it submitted an application to the State Historic Preservation Office to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places.

How You Can Help

Save Historic Middlebury, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit, urges anyone concerned about this threat to contact the head of Connecticut’s State Preservation Office, and “to share their alarm at this needless proposed demolition and express support for the full preservation of the Timex building and campus landscape.”

Elizabeth Shapiro 
Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office 
Director of Arts, Preservation and Museums 
(860) 500-2360 
Elizabeth.Shapiro@ct.gov
 
Many thanks to Docomomo US for their openness in advocating for a building of the much more recent past and its annual advocacy theme directed at the threats to suburban corporate campuses.