TIMEX Computers

After the success and confirmation of the business opportunity with the Sinclair ZX80 computer (the first under the 100£ price tag in 1980), Sir Clive Sinclair and his Sinclair Research needed a partner and investor to scale the emerging computing business. Timex, that had previous experience of working in electronics (e.g. assembling Polaroid cameras in the 70s) accepted the challenge and initiated a partnership with Sinclair whose first step was to start assembling the ZX81 computers in the Timex plant in Dundee, Scotland. In the agreement, Timex secured the rights to sell computers with their own brand in markets where Sinclair was mostly not present. Timex intention was to address the North American market and so they started by modifying and selling with their brand a ZX81 variant.

To address the computing business, Timex created the Timex Computer Corp which introduced the Timex-Sinclair (TS) computer series: TS1000, TS1500, and TS2068. Collaborating with them was the Timex Portugal unit which created a local R&D/Engineering team and collaborated with the USA team in the development and then assembled most of the TS computers.

TS1000 is a Sinclair ZX81 clone but it has 2K RAM. 

TS1500 is a TS1000 with a new case/keyboard, 16K RAM, bug fixes, and new bugs to the ROM.

TS2068 is an evolution of the ZX Spectrum, with a new silver case, new ROMs (24K), new commands, extra video modes, a video composite jack, a built-in cartridge player, an AY sound chip, and a better keyboard with a full-size space bar. Because of the new ROMs, the TS2068 could only run 7% of the ZX Spectrum software. With the Spectrum emulator cartridge, the TS2068 can run 97% of the software. The edge connector is not ZX Spectrum compatible, but TS1000 compatible.

Only these three computers were sold by Timex Computer Corp. The other ones (TS series) were prototypes and never reached the market.