“Indiglo”  is the Timex Watch Company patent name for the technology used in their  watch illumination.

First used around 1989 the nightlights bluish green light illuminates the whole dial at the push of a button. The dial is coated with a compound of zinc sulfide mixed with copper, a substance which becomes luminescent when an electrical charge is applied.  This layer is sandwiched between two conductive layers which act as electrodes. When the button is pushed, energy is supplied by the battery across the two electrodes, which in turn lights up the dial.”  The Indiglo night-light is similar to other watch companies light technologies for example Casio.  Other colours of illumination are attainable by changing the contents of the substance.

Indiglo has been a success for Timex and is featured on more and more of their models including slim Ladies dress watches. The sports models such as Ironman and the outdoor models like Expedition usually have an extra button to press to illuminate the dial. Timex have a neat system available now where the single crown, which is used to set the time and date of the timepiece, can be pressed to activate the Indiglo system. This feature means dress watches for both Mens and Ladies can utelise Indiglo illumination without the use of a second button which may spoil the smoother classic lines of a dress watch.

More recently Timex have produced the “flix”  system to their Ironman Triathlon range of watches.  When wearing the watch a simple  flick of your wrist will activate the Indiglo light. This has proved to be extremely useful for runners and sports men and women generally as there are no buttons to push, its hands free and it will not interupt the rhythm of the runner etc. Also, this feature avoids the wrong buttons being pressed whilst the wearer is under stress and the loss of well earned timing information!