Within the Vintage TIMEX Enthousiast group on Instagram there was an ecstatic talk about the TIMEX Easy Rider. When looking at the models they were talking about, I asked myself two questions. Why are they so enthousiastic about these models and what on earth was the reason Dennis Hopper (the hero in the movie Easy Rider) supposedly was wearing this watch?

I took me a minute before I realised they weren't talking about the TIMEX Easy Rider but they were discussing a series TIMEX introduced in 1977, the TIMEX EASY READER! Now it all made sense.

TIMEX Easy Reader!

In 1977 TIMEX introduced a series of watches that were higly readable. Large dials and cases combined with large contrasting arabic numerals. And nothing to distract from the main function of a watch, telling time. Or as TIMEX marketed this series, the watch with the BIG NUMBERS. 

As you can see, the Easy Reader series was heavily promoted by trade marketing (displays) and mass advertising (radio, tv). The big cases were all Mercury models which can be explained by the fact they only have TIMEX printed on the dial and nothing else.