While some watch fans are unwilling to spend more than $200 or $300 on a daily wear watch, I would highly recommend you consider increasing your budget to around $500 — for just several hundred dollars more, you get much more watch for your money. Plus, higher-end brands and models tend to have much better “resale value”, meaning that you can sell the watch several years down the line without losing any substantial amount of money (in fact, you may even make a profit, as some models become in-demand and appreciate considerably).
The resale value on cheaper $200 and $300 watches, however, is often not so great. So in two years you are stuck with a watch that is boring to you, and you are unable to unload it for a good price.
I recently bought a new daily wear watch for $450 — the listed retail price in the jewelry store was $535, but with some polite haggling I was able to get the salesperson down to $450.
I ended up going with a Hamilton Automatic Khaki King. It’s a simply gorgeous stainless steel watch with a slightly domed sapphire crystal and a see-through back sapphire crystal window showing off the watch’s impressive Swiss/ETA automatic movement. I love watching the gears swiftly move around; nothing in this watch relies on a battery, like all other automatic watches it relies on the motion of your wrist throughout the day to wind up a spring — which stores energy for the watch’s activity.
Hamilton has a great heritage; although a luxury brand, they have managed to keep a lower price point than many other high-end brands such as Tag Heuer, Movado, and Breitling.
During World War II, the U.S. government placed a million-watch order with Hamilton — the watches were sent to G.I.’s serving overseas, instantly immortalizing Hamilton as a trustworthy brand.
Before this, the watch company was known to have “railroad accuracy” — meaning that train conductors in the early twentieth century could rely on it for good timekeeping.
Now, Hamilton is no longer an American brand; it is owned by Swiss watchmaking conglomerate The Swatch Group, which also owns a number of other high-end brands such as Omega and Rado. The acquisition has certainly not hurt the watch brand’s quality; a modern day Hamilton still has excellent, durable casings and a stylish finish, with high-end Swiss movements on the inside.
For less than or around $500, you can simply not go wrong with some variation of the tried-and-true Hamilton Khaki model. When I showed the jeweler my old watch (a $150 Invicta), he took one look at it and said, “That thing is garbage, you know that.”
He was definitely right; I love my Hamilton so much more, and it has received many compliments.
If you are open to Japanese brands, Seiko makes an excellent handful of watches at around the $500 price point. Japanese movement watches will never have the same appeal and mystique as Swiss made watches, but that is not to say that Japanese brands should be overlooked altogether.
Seiko has a long heritage as well, and was in fact the very first watch company to use quartz movements! Plus, Seiko makes all of its parts in-house and assembles them as well, a fact which many other companies cannot claim.
Regardless of whether you go Japanese or Swiss, heed my suggestion and put some real money into your watch purchase. A cheap watch will bore you and will have no substantial resale value.
A well-known brand, on the other hand, will last for many years (possibly even for your grandchildren) and will retain its resale value to some extent.
