Great, Cheap Watches

You don't have to spend $5k to get a good watch.

A few times a month someone asks me for help buying a watch. My first response is always price point: How much are you comfortable spending?

A lot of times the person asking for help says something like, “I really can’t spend more than $2,000. Is it even possible to get a good watch for less than that?”

And here is my stock answer: You can get a lot of watch for $300. You can get a ton of watch for $700. For $1,000, the world is your oyster.

Eventually, I’ll do a post for each of those price points, but today I want to talk about the bottom band. Because while you’re not going to get haute horologie for $300, you can absolutely get a great watch. A real watch. A watch that will make anyone who loves watches smile and tip their caps.

But first, let me tell you what not to do.

Do not buy a fashion watch.

What’s a fashion watch? It’s a piece of crap with $20 worth of materials, gussied up in a brand and marketed like crazy.

Fossil. Swatch. Shinola. Skagen. These are fashion watches and buying one is no different than getting robbed.

Look at this shit on a stick:

That’s right: $300 for a quartz movement that fell off the back of a truck in Guangdong province, with a mineral crystal screwed onto it. It’s a con on people who don’t know enough to protect themselves.

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For the same price, you can buy a gently-used icon: The Seiko SKX007. The 007 is absolutely revered as one of the best tool watches ever made. Get a look at this baby:

What do you get with the SKX007? A dive watch good to 200m. Rock-solid construction. Lume that will blow your mind. And an in-house designed and manufactured 7S26 automatic movement that any watchmaker in the world can service for a few bucks—and that will run for forever.

This is form and function banging it out like spring breakers.

Look at the hands: The hour hand is a sword; the minute hand an arrow—because these are the weapons of the samurai. The second hand has a lumed-up lollipop to help you keep track in the dark. The crown is at 4 o’clock, which, once you’ve tried it, you will always prefer to the 3 o’clock standard. And the caseback has an embossed depiction of a tsunami—which is the Seiko logo.

For less than $300 you’re getting an automatic watch that’s a piece of history, that looks great, and that will keep beating long after you pass it down to your kid in 30 years.

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But maybe you don’t want gently used. Maybe you’re nervous about buying an older watch. Then I have a line of watches for you: The Islander series.

One of the best low- to mid-priced retailers around is Long Island Watch, which is run by a guy named Marc Frankel. A few years ago Marc started his own brand, which he calls the Islander. I’ve bought a bunch of these watches, mostly as gifts for people in my life. And I have been blown away by the quality.

Please note that Marc doesn’t pay me a dime. I’ve traded emails with him but he’s not a buddy. There are no kickbacks of any sort here. I just love the hell out of these watches.

Here’s his latest offering, the Bayport:

Beautiful dial. Applied markers. Nicely executed handset. Great pop of red on the seconds hand. How much detail is Marc investing in this design? Look at the date window: The background is color-matched to the dial so that it doesn’t break the aesthetic.¹

The bezel is ceramic and is fully lumed. The crystal is sapphire. The bracelet has negative end links and a micro-adjust clasp to create a perfect fit. And it’s powered by an NH35, which is a fine Seiko automatic movement. I want you to look at it again:

This thing retails for $299. A buck cheaper than that Fossil.

No matter what kind of watch you’re into—dress, pilot, field, diver—Islander has something for you. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Automatic field watch with sapphire crystal and exhibition caseback: $199.

Dress watch with a linen dial and a high-beat Miyota movement² for $349.

Look: Islander isn’t the only shop making high-quality, affordable watches. And again: I’m not getting paid to shill for them. I’m just telling you that I’ve spent my own money on Islanders and given them to people I love. And they punched way above their weight in terms of bang-per-buck.

So before you drop $650 on some infamnia from a brand that puts 95 percent of the cost of the watch into its marketing spend, understand that you can get a real watch—a watch that will last you the rest of your life and then some, a watch that anyone who loves watches will admire—for a pretty reasonable sum.

You don’t have to be rich to be a watch guy.

1. Compare this to the Fossil above which couldn’t even be bothered to use a white date dial when they were throwing it together.

2. Miyota is a Japan-made offshoot of Citizen.