Timex Dundee: How Scotland Became One of the World’s Most Important Watch Cities — and How Kartel Watches Carries That Legacy Forward

When people search for “Timex Dundee”, they are usually trying to uncover one of the most surprising truths in British watch history:

Some of the world’s most famous watches were made in Scotland.

For decades, Timex watches were manufactured in Dundee, turning the city into one of the most important watchmaking centres in Europe — and laying the foundations for what is now a new generation of Scottish watch brands, including Kartel Watches.

This is the story of how Timex Dundee changed global watchmaking — and how Dundee’s watchmaking spirit lives on today.

Timex Dundee: The Scottish Watch Factory That Supplied the World

In the mid-20th century, Dundee became home to one of the largest Timex watch factories outside the United States.

At its peak, the Timex Dundee factory employed thousands of workers and produced millions of watches that were exported across:

• The United Kingdom

• Europe

• The Middle East

• Asia

These were not luxury watches. They were something more powerful:

Reliable, affordable watches for everyday people.

This was the philosophy that made Timex Dundee legendary.

Why Was Timex Based in Dundee?

The reason Timex chose Dundee was simple:

Dundee had the perfect combination of:

• Precision engineering skills

• Skilled industrial labour

• Strong export infrastructure

• A culture of manufacturing excellence

By the 1950s, Timex Dundee watches were being shipped around the world, with “Made in Scotland” quietly stamped into the back of millions of cases.

This made Dundee one of the most important watch manufacturing cities in the UK — rivalled only by a handful of European hubs.

What Happened to the Timex Dundee Factory?

As the global watch industry moved into a new era of automation, electronics and worldwide supply chains, Timex began consolidating its manufacturing footprint to serve international markets more efficiently. Like many high-precision manufacturers of the time, production was gradually shifted to larger, multi-site global facilities designed to support growing demand and new technologies.

The Dundee factory had done its job — it had helped build Timex into a global household name — and the industry was now changing.

What Dundee was left with, however, was far more valuable than a factory:
a deep reservoir of engineering skill, quality culture, and watchmaking heritage that continues to shape Scottish watch brands today.

Kartel Watches: Dundee’s Modern Watchmaking Successor

Kartel Watches was founded in Dundee, in the same city that once powered the global Timex operation.

But instead of mass production, Kartel took Dundee’s watchmaking DNA in a new direction:

From making millions of watches… to letting people build one themselves.

Kartel didn’t want to compete with smartwatches or luxury brands. It wanted to bring something human back into watchmaking.

From Timex Dundee to Kartel Dundee

Where Timex Dundee made watches for the masses,
Kartel Dundee makes watchmakers out of customers.

Kartel’s Watch-Building Experience allows people to:

• Choose their components

• Assemble their movement

• Fit their hands and dial

• Pressure test their case

• Walk away wearing something they built

It is the modern evolution of Dundee’s watchmaking legacy.

Why “Timex Dundee” Still Matters Today

Search engines are full of people looking for:

• “Timex Dundee”

• “Where were Timex watches made”

• “Scottish watch factory”

• “Dundee watch history”

They are looking for authenticity.

And that’s exactly what Kartel offers.

Kartel is not borrowing Scottish heritage.
It was born inside it.

Dundee: Scotland’s

Watchmaking City

Dundee may be famous for:

• Jute

• Journalism

• Games

But it also deserves recognition for something else: Watchmaking.

From Timex Dundee to Kartel Watches Dundee, the city has quietly shaped how the world wears time on its wrist.

The Shared Philosophy of Timex and Kartel

Timex believed: Watches should be reliable and accessible.

Kartel believes: Watchmaking should be personal and meaningful.

Different eras, Same Dundee spirit.

From a Timex Factory to a Kartel Workshop

Once, Dundee shipped millions of Timex watches around the globe.

Today, Kartel sends something even more powerful:

Stories people wear.

Built by hand.
Built with meaning.
Built in the city that once helped the world tell time.