Timex timeline

December 23 1946: The UK Time Company (a division of the US Time Corporation) opens in temporary premises at Dryburgh Farm House near the factory still being built at Camperdown in Dundee.

1947: The Camperdown factory opens in Harrison Road.

1981 Sinclair Research Limited announces it has sub-contracted Timex in Dundee to mass produce its new ZX81 computer and printer – plus the tubes for its new flat screen pocket TV. British Shipbuilders announce the closure of the Robb Caledon shipyard in Dundee.

1982: IBM starts to subcontract work to Timex in Dundee.

1982: Timex starts assembling the new Sinclair computer ZX 82, lovingly called the ZX Spectrum

January 1983: Timex management announces 1,900 redundancies – due not only to the loss of the Nimslo contract but also to the cessation of all traditional watchmaking activity in Dundee, which will involve the closure of most of the Milton of Craigie and Dunsinane Avenue factories.

February 1983: Sinclair Research says it has become the first company in the world to sell a million home computers. Timex in Dundee is now producing a computer every four seconds.

December 1983: As demand for Sinclair computers in the preChristmas rush starts to vastly outstrip production, Clive Sinclair attends a ceremony at Camperdown to mark the production of the one millionth Spectrum micro-computer.

August 1985: Robert Maxwell withdraws his rescue bid for Sinclair Research.

1986: Amstrad buys the rights to sell and manufacture Sinclair Research products.

January 1993: A mass meeting in the canteen at Camperdown votes in favour of industrial action. The strike starts and is officially sanctioned by the executive council of the AEEU.

May 1993: There is a May Day march to Dundee City Square. Sacked workers speak at May Day rallies throughout Scotland.

May 1993: By now, 16 of the original 17 non-strikers have restarted work at the factory. However, none of the other 326 sacked workers have crossed the picket line. The regular Monday morning mass demonstration at the factory gates is noisy but incident-free.

June 15 1993: Early in the morning, Timex executives take the decision to close the Camperdown factory by Christmas. Muhammad Saleh announces this to local union officials and that

TEC management have offered to negotiate an ex-gratia payment to the sacked workers to come back for the run-down on the same terms as the replacement workforce. Shortly after the closure announcement, the skies darken and rain pours down.

June 17 1993: With two exceptions, a meeting of sacked workers rejects the management offer of temporary work.

August 29 1993: Having stripped the factory of all its contents, the Timex management pays off all its remaining hourlypaid workers and closes the Camperdown factory at 6pm.