Edited by Thane Peterson

Timex is going upscale. The company has just created a new subsidiary, Waterbury Watch Co., to market and sell its higher-end watches. The new unit, which will market licensed lines including Joe Boxer and Nautica as well as distributing traditional Timex watches, is based in midtown Manhattan, more than an hour from the company's headquarters in Middlebury, Conn. "We wanted to create a physical and cultural separation from the mass market," says Pamela Fields, the former retailer who is president of the subsidiary. "You can't be selling to Bloomingdale's the way you sell to Wal-Mart."

Privately held Timex made more than one-third of the 65 million watches sold in the U.S. last year. About 3.25 million Timex licensed watches were sold in department stores, and Fields hopes to increase that tally by 35% this year. Overall, Timex President C. Michael Jacobi forecasts a 10% sales gain for 1997, over its estimated 1996 sales of $600 million.

By Susan Jackson in New Haven, Conn.