Watches Worth Buying at Every Budget
I'll say something that's going to get me hate mail from watch forums: you do not need to spend 1,000. You can spend fifty dollars on a watch right now and it will keep better time than anything your grandfather owned, and it'll look perfectly good doing it.
But — and this is the part watch people are right about — there is something that happens when you put a genuinely well-made watch on your wrist. Something you don't get from pulling your phone out of your pocket for the four hundredth time today. It's a quiet little hit of satisfaction that's hard to explain until you've felt it. It's not about flex. It's not about status. It's about owning one thing that was made with actual intention, that doesn't need charging, doesn't send you notifications, and will probably outlast your phone by about two decades.
I've been wearing watches on and off since college, and more seriously for the last few years. I am not a horologist. I can't identify a Patek Philippe from across a restaurant. I once wore my watch in the shower for a month before realizing it wasn't water-resistant. I am, however, someone who has bought watches at every price point — from a $12 Walmart special that turned my wrist green to a four-figure Swiss automatic that I was terrified to wear outside — and I have opinions about all of them.
Here's what I've learned.
First Things First: Quartz vs. Mechanical (And Why It Matters Less Than People Think)
Before we get into specific watches, let's clear up the thing that confuses everyone: movement types.
Quartz watches run on a battery. A tiny quartz crystal vibrates 32,768 times per second when you send electricity through it, and the watch uses that vibration to keep time. They're accurate to within a few seconds per month. They cost less to make. They require almost zero maintenance — swap the battery every two to five years and you're done. The vast majority of watches on the planet are quartz.
Mechanical watches run on a mainspring — a coiled piece of metal that stores energy as you wind it. An automatic (or "self-winding") mechanical watch winds itself using the motion of your wrist throughout the day. A manual-wind watch requires you to turn the crown every day or two to keep it running. Mechanical watches are less accurate than quartz (a good one gains or loses a few seconds per day), more expensive to make, and need servicing every five to ten years. They are also, to many people, significantly more interesting.
Here's my take: buy what you want. A 10,000 mechanical one. If that matters to you — if a watch is a tool and you want it to do its job reliably — quartz is the smart play and there's zero shame in it. But if you're the kind of person who takes their espresso machine apart to understand how the pressure system works, or who likes knowing exactly what every gadget in their pocket does and why, you might find that a mechanical watch scratches an itch that quartz doesn't. There's something about knowing you've got 200 tiny components working together on your wrist, powered by nothing but physics and a spring, that just feels different.
Neither is better. They're different tools for different people.
Watch Terms You'll Hear (Translated Into English)
Walk into a watch store or read a review online and you'll get hit with terminology that feels designed to make you feel dumb. Here's the cheat sheet:
Case diameter — How wide the watch is, measured in millimeters. 36–40mm is considered classic/medium. 40–44mm is sporty/modern. Over 44mm is large, and unless you have wrists like a lumberjack, it's probably going to look like a wall clock strapped to your arm.
Lug-to-lug — The total length from the top of the watch to the bottom (including the bits where the strap attaches). This matters more than case diameter for how a watch actually wears on your wrist. A 42mm watch with short lugs can wear smaller than a 38mm watch with long lugs.
Water resistance — Measured in meters or ATM. "30 meters" does NOT mean you can take it 30 meters underwater. It means it can handle splashes. 50 meters means you can swim with it. 100 meters means you can actually swim with it and not worry. 200 meters means you can dive. The ratings are confusing and slightly misleading, but just remember: under 100m, keep it dry when possible.
Complications — Any function beyond telling the time. A date window is a complication. A chronograph (stopwatch function) is a complication. A moon phase display is a complication. The word sounds fancy but it just means "extra stuff."
Sapphire crystal — The clear part covering the dial. Sapphire is extremely scratch-resistant (second only to diamond on the hardness scale). Mineral crystal is decent but scratches more easily. Acrylic/Hesalite is the cheapest and scratches if you look at it wrong, but can be polished out. If you're spending over $150, you want sapphire.
Bezel — The ring around the crystal. It can be fixed (just decoration) or rotating (functional, used for timing dives or calculating speed). A lot of people buy dive watches for the rotating bezel and never once use it to time a dive. That's completely fine. It looks cool. We're all adults here.
Under $50: Better Than You'd Expect
The best cheap watch in the world is the Casio F-91W, and I will die on this hill. It's $15. It weighs nothing. It's water-resistant enough for rain. It keeps incredibly accurate time. It has a backlight, a stopwatch, and an alarm. Osama bin Laden wore one. So did Barack Obama. It's the great equalizer of wristwear.
If you want something analog in this range, the Casio MTP series offers clean, simple designs with quartz movements for around $25–40. They look surprisingly good for the money. The dials are clean, the cases are modest (38–40mm), and from across a room, nobody can tell you didn't spend ten times as much.
The honest truth about sub-$50 watches: the movements are fine, the cases are fine, the crystals will scratch over time, and the bracelets and straps are usually where the cheapness shows. But as a daily beater — something you wear to the gym, to the beach, to the bar — you can't really beat the value.
200: The Sweet Spot Nobody Talks About
This is where it gets interesting, and it's the range I think most people should start in if they want a watch that actually feels like a real watch.
The Casio Edifice line lives here and punches absurdly above its weight. Sapphire crystals on some models, solid stainless steel cases, 100m water resistance, chronograph functions — for $120–180, these are genuinely well-made watches. The Edifice EFR-S108D in particular is thin, clean, and looks like something that should cost twice what it does.
Timex has also been doing interesting things in this range. The Timex Waterbury Traditional Chronograph ($100–150) has a vintage aesthetic, Indiglo backlight (Timex's killer feature — press a button and the whole dial glows evenly), and comes in about fifteen colorways. It's a little thick, and the "chronograph" is more decorative than functional on some models, but as a style piece it's solid.
Orient is the dark horse in this bracket. They make mechanical watches — actual automatics with in-house movements — starting around 150–175, you're getting a real mechanical watch from a company that's been making movements since 1950. That's kind of insane.
500: Things Start Getting Serious
This is the range where you can get a watch that'll genuinely last you a decade or more with minimal maintenance.
Seiko dominates here and has for decades. The Seiko Presage line ($300–500) is mechanical, gorgeous, and features dials that are frankly absurd for the price — textured, multi-layered, finished in ways that luxury brands charge thousands for. The "Cocktail Time" series (yes, they name them after cocktails) has ice-blue and champagne dials that catch light in a way your phone absolutely cannot replicate through a photo.
The Tissot PRX is the other major player in this range. The quartz version is around 475–650. It's an integrated bracelet design (meaning the bracelet flows into the case without visible lugs) that's been one of the most popular watches in the world for the past few years. It wears beautifully at 40mm, the bracelet is comfortable out of the box, and it has that "expensive-looking" quality that watches twice the price sometimes lack.
Hamilton is worth mentioning too. The Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical ($450–500) is a 38mm hand-wound watch with military heritage, a clean dial, and an 80-hour power reserve, which means you can take it off Friday night and it'll still be running Monday morning. It's thin, it's versatile, and it's the watch that makes most people fall in love with mechanicals.
At this price point, you're getting sapphire crystals, solid movements (often with hacking and hand-winding), decent water resistance, and build quality that's a genuine step up from anything under $200.
1,000: The "I'm Actually Into This Now" Range
If you've gotten to this point, you probably don't need convincing anymore. You've handled a few watches, maybe you've started noticing what other people are wearing, and you've accepted that this is a hobby now. Welcome. Your wallet has my sympathy.
The Seiko Prospex line has some of its best divers in this range. The SPB series ($600–900) features Seiko's 6R35 movement with a 70-hour power reserve, 200m water resistance, and the kind of build quality that makes people online argue about whether Seiko competes with watches costing twice as much. (They do.)
Tissot's higher-end pieces live here too — the Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium ($500–650) uses a silicon hairspring, which means it's more resistant to magnetic fields and doesn't need servicing as often. If you work near electronics, magnets, or, you know, your phone — this actually matters. It's a quietly technical watch that doesn't shout about its features.
Certina and Mido (both owned by the Swatch Group, same as Tissot) offer Swiss-made watches with ETA movements in this range that are genuinely well-finished. The Certina DS Action Diver ($500–700) is a 300m diver with a ceramic bezel and a build quality that feels more expensive than it is.
$1,000 And Up: Where "Want" And "Need" Part Ways
I'm going to be real: once you cross the thousand-dollar line, you are no longer buying a tool. You're buying a luxury item, a hobby piece, a tiny mechanical sculpture for your wrist. And that's okay. People spend a thousand dollars on a graphics card, on a weekend golf trip, on a really good cooler. At least a watch holds its value better than most of those.
The Longines Spirit (3,000+. The 40mm size is perfect for most wrists, the dial is legible and handsome, and the bracelet is genuinely well-made.
Tudor — Rolex's sister brand — makes the Black Bay line ($2,500–4,000) which is where a lot of enthusiasts land when they want "the real deal" without the Rolex markup. In-house movements, 200m water resistance, and a design language that's clearly influenced by vintage Rolex Submariners without being a copy. If you see one in the metal, you'll understand the hype.
I'm not going to tell you to spend four thousand dollars on a watch. But I will tell you that the people who do rarely regret it — because unlike most things you buy, a good mechanical watch doesn't depreciate to nothing, doesn't become obsolete, and in a lot of cases gets passed down. My dad's Seiko 5 from the 1980s still runs. Try saying that about your 2019 laptop.
Why Bother With a Watch at All?
Fair question, especially since you've got a phone that tells perfect time and does a million other things. I asked myself the same thing back when I was more of a wearable tech guy than a watch guy.
The honest answer is: a watch is one of the few things you can wear every day that isn't purely functional. It's a small expression of who you are, or at least who you're aspiring to be. It doesn't need charging. It doesn't distract you. It doesn't ping you with news alerts or work emails. It just tells you what time it is, and maybe the date, and it does it beautifully.
There's also a practical argument. Checking your phone for the time pulls you into a vortex of notifications, texts, and the sudden realization that you haven't opened Instagram in forty-five minutes. Glancing at your wrist takes half a second and you're done. In meetings, at dinner, on dates — it's just less rude and less distracting than pulling out your phone.
And look, I'm not saying everyone needs a watch. If you genuinely don't care, don't buy one. But if you're even a little curious — if you've ever noticed someone's watch and thought, "That's cool" — grab a Casio F-91W for fifteen bucks and wear it for a month. See how it feels. Worst case, you're out the price of a mediocre lunch.
Best case, you've just picked up a hobby that's quieter, slower, and more satisfying than anything on your phone. And your wrist will look better for it.
