Hammyuk – I had one of those – very comfy and reliable – but the glass scratched very easily. Marko75 – search the forum – maybe it’s the Christmas season of treating oneself – but plenty of “what watch” threads.
Marko75 – search the forum – maybe it’s the Christmas season of treating oneself
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My wife wants to buy me a birthday present (july) – it was going to be Rapha gear but cant see to justify to myself all that expense. We did buy the Swiss military watc- it looks great but is a little on the large size
Yes there are lots of threads – but most recommend G watch which is bulky as hell or the cheaper Casio/timex/sekonda and my wife will not buy a cheap watch!
If you other half wants to get sniffy about “cheap watches” she’ll need to find a lot more than £200! To be honest, watches are mainly about marketing and there’s not a lot separating a lot of expensive watches from cheap ones.
At £200, you’ve got a few options.
Mechanical watches:
Seiko or Orient automatic – you’ll get one for £200 quite happily, and have a reliable automatic movement that’s been made in house by the watch manufacturer. Y’know, like what Rolex boast about all the time…
Quartz watches:
Casio, Citizen and Seiko (Pulsar and Lorus are Seiko owned) make the whole lot in house. Casio did some gorgeous watches in their Oceanus range a while ago, they now seem to be focusing more on the sport market with their Edifice range. Citizen and Seiko both make a big range of nice quartz watches to suit a wide range of tastes.
Everyone else will be buying in quartz movements and putting them into their watches. If you want some element of status, I’d suggest going for the bottom end of a a relatively expensive watch firm’s range (ie, Tissot etc.) rather than the top end of a cheaper range like Rotary…
Most of the “designer” brands are made by Fossil or the Herald group, so you’re buying a product which has licensed the designers name.
Ultimately though, have a think and buy a watch that you like. Hugo Boss are doing a bit of a knock off of the IWC Portugese that looks great…
I’ve had one of these in titanium for the last 6 years: LINK
reliable, bombproof, light and not too big. (I also have girly wrists!)
I fancy one of these next though: GNARR!
Apparently it’s a ‘small’.
My current watch has auto-tilt back illumination but it doesn’t quite work, my next watch will have tritium tubes!
Mondaine’s seem more resilient than they might appear.
I’ve been wearing mine every day for the last 2.5 years – ( got the day / date version). It has a couple of slight scratches on the glass but it’s nothing that you notice.
The strap didnt last that long – Have just fitted it’s 3rd this very week. I had the battery replaced a couple of weeks back.
But, as an every day watch – they’re really good !
They look good as casual wear & also look classy when wearing a suit.
I think Skagen make some very good looking watches in that range, there are a few Nixon’s that might suit if you don’t want to have to talk to people about their watches.