Time Warrior (G1)

This article is about devices from Generation 1. For the multiversal adventurers from the Unicron Trilogy, see Time Warrior (AVP).

Not actually involved in the Time Wars.

Time Warriors are wristwatches used by the Autobots and some of their human allies. That's pretty much the long and short of it. One might imagine that they could stop time or reverse time or tell you the time out loud or something. But as far as anyone knows... no.

Fiction

S.T.A.R.S. continuity

Synchronize Swatches!

The Time Warriors arrived with the reinforcements from Cybertron, and the Autobots used them to coordinate their attacks on Decepticon bases. The battle is far from over! Reinforcements from Cybertron! Earthlings: THE S.T.A.R.S. need your help now!

The Autobots also made Time Warriors available to human allies, who used them to keep track of the time during their own missions. The nature of those missions is unclear; all that is known is that they were conducted while Decepticons were absent but expected to return.

The human involvement is inferred from a blurb that conspicuously uses the second person, bringing the reader into the story as a nameless character on a mission. This would become common in S.T.A.R.S.-related fiction, where the reader is being recruited as a human ally. But this particular bit is more ambiguous because it predates the introduction of S.T.A.R.S. We retroactively apply the S.T.A.R.S. storytelling model here, but it could be interpreted differently.

Toys

The Transformers

• Time Warrior (1985)

Part of the first year of The Transformers product, Time Warriors are digital watches that look like Autobot symbols. Pressing the blue "mouth" button splits the faceplate to reveal the digital display. That's kind of like transforming? The watch keeps track of both the time and date, and can even be used as a seconds-counting stopwatch.

They were only available as a mail-away offer, advertised via various pack-in flyers starting in 1984. They are also freakin' expensive now, with non-broken copies (the Autobot symbol halves have a nasty habit of snapping off) selling for several hundred dollars.

Notes

• The Time Warriors featured an LCD screen which could display a wide range of numerical values, which periodically incremented in a fixed sequence. Although publicity material typically portrayed a value of 6:32, this was merely one of several possible displays, and was no more common or significant than any of the others.