What Watches Did George W. Bush Wear?

The $50 Timex That Ran the Free World

Of all the objects that sat in the Oval Office between January 2001 and January 2009, none was quite as unassuming as the watch on the president’s wrist. While his predecessors and successors favoured Rolex, Omega and other luxury brands, George W. Bush wore a Timex Indiglo — a quartz watch that retailed for roughly $50 at the time. It was the same brand that soldiers wore in the Gulf War, the same brand that college students picked up at Target, and the same brand that had been famous since John Cameron Swayze began strapping them to outboard motors in the 1950s.

At a White House press conference, a reporter noticed the watch and asked about it. Bush rolled up his sleeve, showed the dial and said, “I always wear a $50 Timex.” The line became one of the most quoted presidential watch moments in American history — not because of the watch itself but because of what it communicated. Here was a man whose family owned a compound in Kennebunkport and who had attended both Yale and Harvard Business School, and he chose the cheapest functional watch on the market. Whether that was genuine modesty or calculated image-making depends on whom you ask, but the result was the same: Bush’s Timex became a political symbol.

The choice was consistent. Throughout eight years in office, two wars, two election cycles and thousands of public appearances, Bush was almost never photographed wearing anything else. He wore the Timex to state dinners, to the ranch in Crawford, Texas, to Ground Zero on September 14, 2001, and to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003. The watch saw more history than most museum pieces.

Which Timex Did Bush Actually Wear?

This is where the story gets murky. No authoritative source has confirmed a single reference number. Multiple watch publications have examined press photos and arrived at slightly different conclusions. The candidates fall into three categories: the Timex Easy Reader with Indiglo, a Timex Classic reportedly gifted by Timex directly, and a broader “Timex Indiglo” identification that doesn’t pin down a specific collection. One Japanese watch publication identifies the model as a Timex Easy Reader reference TX-TW2W95400, but that is a single unconfirmed source and the reference appears to be a modern reissue rather than a vintage piece from the early 2000s.

What we do know from photographs is that Bush’s primary watch had a round case, a white or silver dial, Arabic numerals, a leather strap (usually dark brown or black), and the distinctive Indiglo electroluminescent backlight that Timex introduced in 1992. That description fits the Easy Reader family better than any other Timex collection. The Easy Reader has been in continuous production since the 1970s, making it one of the longest-running watch designs in American horology.

One additional watch has been attributed to Bush: a Casio G-Shock, cited by a single online guide. There are no widely published photographs confirming Bush wearing a G-Shock during his presidency, though the rugged digital watch would have suited his ranch persona. Without stronger evidence, the G-Shock identification remains unverified. If you’re trying to choose a watch with presidential heritage, the Timex is the safer bet.

The Albania Watch Mystery

On June 10, 2007, President Bush made a state visit to Albania — the first sitting U.S. president to do so. The reception in the town of Fushë Krujë, about 15 miles north of the capital Tirana, was ecstatic. Crowds surged forward to touch and embrace the president. People grabbed his arms and wrists, ruffled his hair and reached for handshakes. Secret Service agents struggled to maintain a perimeter.

Then the internet noticed something: in video footage from before the crowd interaction, Bush’s Timex is clearly visible on his left wrist. In footage from moments after, the wrist is bare. The clip went viral. Headlines ran with variations of “Bush’s Watch Stolen in Albania.” Albanian media was mortified. The story became an international embarrassment for a country that had gone out of its way to celebrate the presidential visit.

The reality was less dramatic. A second camera angle, analysed by security researcher Bruce Schneier among others, showed Bush reaching behind his back and apparently handing the watch to a Secret Service agent — a standard protective measure when a principal is being jostled by a crowd. White House spokesman Tony Snow confirmed that Bush “put the watch in his pocket.” An Albanian bodyguard separately claimed he saw an American colleague pick the watch up from the sidewalk, suggesting it may have been unclasped during the melee and recovered immediately. Bush himself called the theft narrative “ludicrous” and “unbelievable.”

Regardless of the truth, the incident made Bush’s $50 Timex the most famous watch in global news for a week. Albania later erected a bronze statue of Bush in Fushë Krujë in 2011, commemorating the visit. The statue’s left wrist, for the record, is bare. The watch that caused the controversy — whether it was slipped into a pocket, retrieved from the pavement or walked off into the Albanian countryside — was worth less than the metal used to cast the statue’s hand.

How Bush’s Watch Compares to Other Presidents

Presidential watch choices have always been a window into personal style, political calculation or both. Bush’s Timex sits at the extreme affordable end of a spectrum that stretches from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Tiffany & Co. gold pocket watch to Joe Biden’s Rolex Pearlmaster. The table below places the 43rd president’s choice in context alongside other notable Oval Office timepieces.

Bush’s Timex is the least expensive watch worn by a modern U.S. president, with the possible exception of Bill Clinton’s Timex Ironman Triathlon — a $40 digital sports watch Clinton wore during his first term before upgrading to a Cartier Tank after leaving office. Clinton’s Timex was itself a political statement: when he accepted a Cartier from the brand in 1993, media coverage forced him back to the Ironman within weeks. Both Clinton and Bush learned the same lesson — the presidential wrist is public property.

Barack Obama split the difference with the Jorg Gray 6500 Chronograph, a $350 quartz watch gifted to him by his Secret Service detail. It was neither luxury nor budget — a mid-range piece from a micro brand that saw its sales increase by an estimated 3,000% after Obama was photographed wearing it. If you’re interested in how presidential associations affect watch resale value, the Jorg Gray story is a compelling case study.

Can You Still Buy Bush’s Watch?

Yes, and you have two options. The first is to buy a current-production Timex Easy Reader from any department store, Amazon or the Timex website directly. The Easy Reader collection spans dozens of dial, case and strap combinations, with prices starting around $30 for the simplest versions and climbing to about $70 for date-window models on expansion bracelets. All current Easy Readers include the Indiglo backlight that became a Timex signature in the early 1990s.

The second option is the official replica sold through the George W. Bush Presidential Center gift shop. Described as “modeled after the Timex watch that President Bush wore daily,” this version features an American flag on the dial and retails for around $40. It is a Timex-branded quartz watch, not a vintage find — think of it as an authorized tribute piece rather than a true reissue.

For vintage examples from the early 2000s that more closely match the specific watch Bush wore in office, check eBay and estate sales. Original Timex Indiglo models from that era typically sell for $15–$40 on the secondary market, with condition and strap originality driving the modest price variation. These are not collector’s watches in the traditional sense — Timex produced millions of units — so scarcity is not a factor. If you want to check whether a used watch price is fair, a quick scan with Grailr can help you compare asking prices across platforms.

What the Timex Choice Says About Presidential Style

The presidential watch is one of the few personal accessories that gets noticed by the press, the public and the horological community simultaneously. It carries weight that a necktie or cufflink pair does not, because a watch is a daily-wear choice — you put it on every morning and it appears in every photograph. Wearing a Rolex Day-Date says something. Wearing a $50 Timex says something else entirely.

Bush’s Timex was part of a broader style code: the ranch, the brush clearing, the casual jeans-and-boots photo ops. It communicated that the president was an ordinary American despite his Ivy League credentials and political dynasty. Whether this was genuine preference or political performance is impossible to know — but the consistency argues for at least some authentic attachment to the watch. Most politicians who make strategic accessory choices rotate through them. Bush kept the same Timex for eight years.

The Timex also avoided the trap that ensnared both Clinton and later Biden. Clinton’s acceptance of a Cartier Tank became a minor scandal. Biden’s Rolex Pearlmaster — a watch that retails for approximately $40,000 — drew criticism during an era of high inflation. Bush’s $50 Timex was essentially immune to optics complaints. No reporter could accuse a president of extravagance for wearing the same watch as a gas station cashier.

In the broader landscape of watches that offer the best value for money, the Timex Easy Reader remains an unlikely icon. It proves that a watch does not need to be expensive to be historically significant — it just needs the right wrist at the right time.

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