Affordable Men’s Watches: The Best Picks at Every Price
It goes without saying that the world today has changed a ton compared to the world our grandparents lived in. And a great example of this is how we check the time. Ask the average guy today what time it is, and there’s a good chance he’ll pull out his phone to check, even if he’s wearing a watch. So today, we mostly wear our watches to improve our look, whether we’re in sweatpants and a hoodie or in a suit. And the watch is the go-to accessory for most men, because it’s the only piece of jewelry most guys are comfortable wearing, as long as nobody calls it jewelry.
When you think of a high-quality watch, the average man’s mind quickly goes to a Rolex. But the truth is, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a watch that enhances your style and won’t break in 2 weeks. How good a watch looks has a lot less to do with what it costs than most guys think, and some of the best-looking watches you can buy cost less than $100.
In this post, we’ll take a look at 8 watches, sorted by price from about $30 to about $450, plus a bonus pick for the guy who wants his watch to do more than look good. Each one made the list because the people who review watches for a living recommend it, the people who bought one are happy with it, and it comes from a brand you won’t be embarrassed to wear in public. Before the list, I’ll also show you how to tell when a watch looks cheap, so you can judge any watch you’re thinking about buying, not just these 8.
How these 8 watches were picked
Search for the best affordable watches and you’ll find hundreds of lists, but a lot of them never tell you why a watch made the cut. So here’s exactly how these 8 were picked. Every watch on this list had to pass 3 checks.
First, the experts had to like it, which means at least 2 publications that review watches had to recommend it at its price. That includes magazines and sites like Gear Patrol, Esquire, Men’s Health and the British magazine Stuff, plus watch specialists like the review site Worn & Wound and the watch reviewer Teddy Baldassarre. A list from a site that doesn’t actually review watches didn’t count. One good review can be a fluke, but when 2 or more experts land on the same watch, it’s a pick you can trust.
Second, the people who bought it had to like it, which means strong owner ratings with no complaint that keeps coming up about the watch itself breaking. Experts review a watch after wearing it for a while, but owners wear it for years, so they’re the ones who find out whether it holds up.
And third, it had to come from a brand you won’t feel weird wearing. A watch can be well made and still be the wrong pick if you’d be embarrassed when somebody asks what you’re wearing. In YouGov’s ratings of which watch brands Americans like most, Timex, Seiko and Casio all rank near the top, right alongside Rolex. Orient and Tissot rank lower, mostly because fewer people have heard of them, but guys who know watches respect both brands, so nobody is going to think less of you for wearing one. Invicta, on the other hand, sells a lot of watches, but Gear Patrol has pointed out that most collectors write it off as a fashion brand, which in the watch world means a brand that sells a look more than a well-made watch. That’s why you won’t find Invicta here.
What the extra money actually buys
If some of the best-looking watches cost less than $100, you’re probably wondering what you get when you spend $400. A big part of the answer is inside the watch. The cheapest watches on this list run on quartz movements. The movement is the part inside the watch that keeps time, and a quartz movement uses a battery and a tiny vibrating piece of quartz to do it. Quartz is cheap to make and very accurate. The Casio at the bottom of the list is rated to drift about 30 seconds a month.
Several of the watches higher up the list are automatics, which means there’s a small machine inside that winds itself from the motion of your wrist. Automatics are harder to make and more interesting to own, but they’re less accurate. The Orient Bambino is rated to gain or lose up to about 25 seconds a day, which is normal for an automatic at this price. Automatics also stop running when you stop wearing them. Most of the automatics here hold about 40 hours of power, so if you take one off Friday night, plan on resetting it Sunday.
That means a $30 Casio keeps better time than a $400 automatic, so if accuracy were the only goal, you’d stop at the bottom of this list. As you move up, you’re paying for 3 other things instead. First, you’re paying for better materials, like a steel case instead of a plastic one, and a crystal that doesn’t scratch as easily. The crystal is the clear cover over the dial. Second, you’re paying for the movement itself, because for a lot of guys, a well-made automatic is the whole reason to buy a watch. And third, you’re paying for design and history, since several of these watches are modern versions of watches from the 1960s and 1970s. None of those 3 things make a watch more accurate, but all of them are good reasons to spend more, and whether they’re worth it to you is your call.
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How to tell if a watch looks cheap
You’ve probably seen a watch on somebody’s wrist that looked cheap from across the room, even if you couldn’t say exactly why. What makes a watch look cheap usually isn’t the price. The $30 Casio at the bottom of this list doesn’t look cheap, because it’s a simple digital watch and it isn’t pretending to be anything else. The watches that do look cheap are usually copying details from expensive watches without the quality to back them up, like little dials that make the watch look like a stopwatch when it isn’t one, stones that aren’t diamonds, or a designer’s logo on a watch the designer didn’t make. Expensive watches have plenty of shine and detail too, but on those watches the detail is real and well made. On a cheap watch that’s copying the look, the detail is what gives it away.
Here are 4 things to check before you buy a watch.
- Look at whose name is on the dial. A lot of watches with a clothing designer’s name on them aren’t made by that designer. For years, Michael Kors watches have been designed and sold by Fossil Group under a licensing deal, which means Michael Kors lends its name to a watch company, and a big part of what you’re paying for is that name. That’s why most people who know watches don’t take designer watches seriously. If you like how one looks, that’s your call, but you’ll usually get a better-made watch for the same money from a company that’s known for making watches, like every brand on this list.
- Count the little dials. Some watches pack 3 or 4 little dials inside the main one, plus extra numbers and fine print, so the watch looks like it does a lot. Those little dials are borrowed from chronographs, which are watches with a built-in stopwatch. On a lot of cheaper fashion watches, though, the little dials don’t run a stopwatch at all. They show the day, the date and the time in a 24-hour format, which is handy, but it means the watch is built to look like a stopwatch without being one. A real chronograph with working dials can look great. But if the little dials are only there for show, you’re better off with a plain dial, which is why almost every watch on this list keeps the dial simple.
- Skip the fake diamonds. Stones set around the dial of a $100 watch aren’t diamonds, and anybody who looks closely knows it. A gold-tone watch can look great when the rest of the watch is simple, like the gold-tone Casio mentioned below. But put gold, stones and a crowded dial on the same watch, and it looks like something you won in a raffle.
- Check the strap. A stiff, shiny strap that looks like plastic makes any watch look cheap, even a good one. And a strap labeled “genuine leather” isn’t telling you much. All that label means is that the strap is real leather, and brands that use better leather usually say so, with words like “full-grain” or “top-grain.” Owners of the watches on this list complain about the strap more than anything else, which is why the buying section near the end tells you to budget for a new one.
If a watch you’re looking at in a store passes all 4, you can buy it without worrying that it looks cheap, even if it isn’t on this list.
Under $100: cheap without looking cheap
These 3 cost less than a nice dinner, and nobody who sees one on your wrist will think you were cutting corners. All 3 are Casio, because at this price, Casio is the brand reviewers and owners recommend over and over.
1. Casio A158W, about $30
If you haven’t worn a watch in years and want to find out whether you’ll actually wear one, this is the cheapest way to do it. The A158W is a slim digital watch on a steel bracelet, and Casio has been making it since 1989, which makes it older than a lot of the guys wearing it. It looks retro without looking like a costume, and it’s small and plain enough to wear to the office without looking like you’re about to go for a run.
Men’s Health put it on its list of the best watches under $100, and the menswear site He Spoke Style called it a current favorite back when it cost $19, mostly because it’s smaller and less flashy than a chunky G-Shock. Tens of thousands of owners have rated it, and most of them love it. The complaint that comes up most is the bracelet clasp, which works fine but feels cheap, and on a $30 watch, that’s not a surprise.
It’s at its best with jeans, chinos and T-shirts, on weekends, and at an office where nobody wears a suit. The battery is rated for about 7 years, which is longer than most gym memberships last. If you’d rather wear gold, Casio makes a gold-tone watch in the same style, called the A168.
2. Casio Duro, about $70
Most big luxury watch brands make a steel dive watch, and those usually cost thousands of dollars. The Duro gives you the same look for about $70, or roughly what you’d spend on a decent pair of swim trunks. It’s also a real dive watch, with 200 meters of water resistance, which is deeper than you’ll ever go unless something has gone very wrong on a boat. Its crown, the knob on the side you use to set the time, screws shut to keep water out, and it has a rotating bezel, which is the ring around the dial that divers turn to time a dive. And that dive watch look goes with more outfits than any other kind of sports watch.
Teddy Baldassarre calls it a staple for budget-minded dive watch buyers, and Men’s Health picked it for its list of the best watches under $100. Owners love it, and the one complaint that comes up constantly is the rubber strap it ships on. Luckily, that’s a cheap fix. If you put it on a nylon strap or a steel bracelet, it looks like a watch that cost a lot more.
Wear it on weekends, on vacation, at the pool and on casual Fridays. It’s about $70 on the rubber strap and a little more on a bracelet.
3. Casio G-Shock DW5600, about $100
If you want a watch you never have to baby, this is the one. The DW5600 is the square G-Shock, the same basic shape G-Shock started with, and it’s still the one most people picture when they hear the name. It’s shock resistant, it’s water resistant to 200 meters, and it’s about as close to indestructible as a watch gets.
Gear Patrol’s guide to watches under $500 picks the solar-powered version of this same square G-Shock and calls it nearly impossible to destroy. Gear Patrol’s one knock is that a G-Shock isn’t a status symbol, and that’s fair, because nobody buys a G-Shock to impress anybody. The men’s site DMARGE puts the DW5600 first on its own list of the best watches under $500 and calls it about as close as you can get to wearing one of the original square G-Shocks from the 1980s. The main complaint from owners is that the strap, which is made of a tough plastic called resin, eventually wears out. That usually happens years later, which is a long life for a $100 watch.
The DW5600 is the watch for the gym, a run, the beach, moving day and any trip where your watch might end up in a backpack with your keys. It is not the watch for a wedding, even an outdoor one. It costs about $100 at list, and the solar version Gear Patrol tested costs more.
$180 to $320: watches with a backstory
In this price range, a big part of what you’re paying for is design. Two of the 3 watches here are modern versions of watches from the 1960s and 1970s, and the third comes from a line Seiko has been making since the 1960s. A design that people still like 50 years later isn’t going to look dated a few years after you buy it.
4. Q Timex Reissue, about $180
Some of the best-looking watches around are the old ones guys inherit from their dads, and the Q Timex is about as close as you can get to that look for under $200. It’s a reissue of a quartz watch Timex first sold in 1979, and Timex copied the details closely. It has a woven steel bracelet, a rotating bezel, a domed acrylic crystal and a battery hatch on the back so you can change the battery at home, a feature you don’t see on many watches today. And because it runs on a battery, it doesn’t need the regular trips to a watchmaker that an actual vintage watch does.
The watch review site Two Broke Watch Snobs said the case and the finishing, meaning how carefully the metal is polished and brushed, are well above what you’d expect from a Timex at this price. The fashion site Highsnobiety reported that the first batch sold out in less than a day, and Gear Patrol credits the Q reissue with much of Timex’s comeback with watch fans. The shared complaint from reviewers and owners is the bracelet, which feels lighter and cheaper than the case. The acrylic crystal will pick up scuffs too, but you can buff scuffs out of acrylic at home with a little polish, which you can’t do with the harder crystals on more expensive watches.
The Q Timex goes with almost everything short of a suit, which makes it one of the most useful watches on this list. Wear it with jeans, chinos or an untucked shirt at dinner. It costs about $180 at list, and Timex makes the Q in several versions, so look at all of them before you pick one.
5. Timex Marlin, about $270 to $300
If you wear a suit or a blazer even a few times a year, it helps to have one watch that looks right with it, and the Marlin is the most affordable dress watch on this list. It’s Timex’s reissue of a watch from the 1960s, and it looks like something a guy wore to the office in Mad Men, minus the drinking before lunch. It comes in 2 versions worth knowing about. First, the hand-wound version, which you wind with the crown every day or so, is the closest to the 1960s original and costs about $270. And second, the automatic winds itself, runs a little larger and costs about $300.
Gear Patrol called the original hand-wound Marlin one of the best budget watches of the year it came out, and Esquire picked a newer Marlin, the Draper, as the affordable pick on one of its lists of the best dress watches. Worn & Wound’s two knocks on the automatic are that it’s on the thick side and that the dial would look cleaner without the date window. Owners like the look, and the complaint that comes up most is the leather strap it ships on. Swapping it for a better leather strap is the cheapest way to make the Marlin look and feel more expensive.
Wear the Marlin with a suit, a blazer, a sweater, or anything else where you’d tuck in your shirt.
6. Seiko 5 Sports Field, about $315
Seiko’s 5 line goes back to the 1960s, and for decades it’s been the first automatic watch reviewers tell guys to buy. The Field version is the most versatile watch in the line. It has a clean military-style dial, a nylon strap, 100 meters of water resistance, and the same automatic movement Seiko puts in most of its affordable watches, which has a long record of being reliable.
Gear Patrol says the Field is as stylish and reliable as ever, and its one wish is that it were thinner. Stuff names the Seiko 5 Sports line the best cheap watch you can buy, and Esquire includes the 5 Sports among the best watches under $1,000. The one trade-off is the crystal, because Seiko uses its own hardened glass, called Hardlex, which scratches more easily than the sapphire crystal on the Tissot further down this list.
It’s at its best with jeans, chinos, a field jacket and a weekend away. Put it on a leather strap and it’ll go to dinner too. It costs about $315 at list.
$400 to $450: where the purchase starts to matter
At this price, you’re spending real money, so take your time and pick the one you’ll actually wear. Either of these watches is good enough to be the last watch you buy for a long time.
7. Orient Bambino, about $400 to $430
The Bambino is the dress watch reviewers have been recommending to beginners for years. It has a domed crystal over a domed dial, which catches light in a way flat watches don’t, and it runs on an automatic movement Orient makes itself, which is rare at this price. Orient makes so many versions of the Bambino that even Gear Patrol called the lineup confusing. Don’t let that slow you down. Most versions share the same domed design and the same automatic movement, so pick the dial color and size you like best.
Gear Patrol says the Bambino has long been the top recommendation for an affordable dress watch, and Stuff names a Bambino its best affordable dress watch. Gear Patrol’s only real knock is the stock strap. Owners are happy with it, and the ones who do complain mostly mention the strap or the fact that, like any automatic, it gains or loses some time every day.
The Bambino is water resistant to 30 meters, which means it’s fine in the rain and not fine in the pool. That’s normal for a dress watch, because a dress watch is made for suits and dinners, not for swimming.
Orient lists most Bambinos at about $400 to $430, and it marks them down on its own site, sometimes by a lot. There’s more on that below.
8. Tissot PRX Quartz, about $450
Most of the watches above have at least one place they don’t fit. The G-Shock doesn’t go to weddings, and the Bambino doesn’t go in the pool. The PRX is the exception, because it works with a suit, a T-shirt and just about everything in between. It’s a reissue of a 1978 Tissot design with the bracelet built right into the case, a look you usually only see on luxury watches, like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, that cost as much as a new car. It’s Swiss, it has a sapphire crystal that’s very hard to scratch, it’s water resistant to 100 meters, and it’s thin enough to slide under a shirt cuff.
Stuff ranks it the best affordable watch overall, and Esquire put it at the top of its list of the best affordable Swiss watches. Gear Patrol even uses the PRX as the standard it measures other watches in this style against. Owners are happy with it too, and the trade-off they run into is the bracelet. Because the bracelet is built into the case, only Tissot’s own straps fit, and those cost about $60.
This is the quartz version, and it costs about $450 at list on Tissot’s site. The automatic version is beautiful and costs a few hundred dollars more, which puts it in a different budget than this list.
Bonus: Apple Watch SE 3, about $250
Everything else on this list is a traditional watch, which means its job is to tell the time and look good while it does. A smartwatch does a lot more, and if you have an iPhone, the Apple Watch to look at first is the SE 3, the cheapest one Apple sells. It counts your steps, tracks your heart rate and your sleep, shows your texts and lets you answer calls from your wrist. It also has fall detection and crash detection, which you’ll never think about until the day it matters.
There are 3 things to know before you buy one. First, it only works with an iPhone, and Apple says it needs an iPhone 11 or newer, so if you’re on Android it won’t work at all. Second, calls and texts with your phone left at home need the cellular version, which costs more up front, plus a monthly fee from your carrier that usually runs about $10. The regular version handles calls and texts fine as long as your phone is nearby or you’re on Wi-Fi. And third, you’ll charge it every night, because the battery is rated for about 18 hours. That’s normal for a smartwatch, but it’s a big change if you’re coming from a Casio that runs for 7 years on one battery.
The tech site TechRadar gave it 4.5 out of 5 and called it the best Apple Watch for most people, and the smartwatch review site Wareable says it’s still the best choice for most first-time smartwatch buyers with an iPhone. Owners rate it highly, and their main complaint is the battery.
Wear it to the gym and to work. For a wedding or a dinner where you dressed up, wear a traditional watch, and there’s more on that in the questions below. The regular version costs about $250 at list.
How to buy a watch without overpaying
Once you’ve picked a watch, the next step is making sure you don’t pay more for it than you have to. There are 3 things that will keep you from overpaying for any watch on this list.
First, never pay more than list price, and don’t assume you have to pay that much either, because watch brands put their own watches on sale more often than most guys expect. In my book Dress to Impress and Spend Less, I talk about picking your discount number before you ever start shopping, and it works especially well with watches. Pick the watch first, decide how big a discount you’re holding out for, and then wait for a sale that hits that number.
Second, buy from the brand itself or from a store the brand lists as an authorized dealer. Plenty of sites sell new watches for less, but if a seller isn’t authorized, the manufacturer’s warranty usually doesn’t come with the watch. On a $300 watch, saving $40 and giving up a warranty that runs 2 or 3 years is a bad trade.
And third, budget for a new strap. Most of the complaints in this post are about the strap or bracelet a watch ships on, and replacing it is the cheapest way to make most of the watches here look more expensive.
Common questions
Can I wear a cheap watch with a suit? Yes, as long as it’s the right cheap watch. A slim, simple watch looks fine with a suit even when it cost $30, and a big sports watch looks wrong with a suit even when it cost $3,000. If you’re buying one watch mainly for suits, the Marlin or the Bambino is the right call. Save the G-Shock and the Duro for the weekend.
Should I get quartz or automatic? Get quartz if you want a watch that keeps good time and never needs a thought. Get an automatic if you like the idea of a small machine on your wrist and don’t mind resetting it after a weekend off. Neither one is the more grown-up choice. They’re just different, and an automatic is the one that tends to turn into a hobby.
Is an Apple Watch okay with a suit? At the office, it’s fine, especially if you swap the rubber band for a leather or metal one. For a wedding, a funeral or any dinner where everyone dressed up, wear a traditional watch. A screen that lights up every time you get a text looks out of place with a suit and tie, and it makes you look like you’re checking your phone.
Should my watch match my belt buckle? Yes, it should at least be close. A steel watch goes with a silver buckle and with almost everything else, which is why most of this list is steel. If you wear a gold-tone watch, wear a gold-tone buckle with it, so it looks like you matched them on purpose.
Is a cheap watch from a brand I’ve never heard of just as good? Some of them are fine, but you have no way of knowing which ones until you’ve worn one for a while. Every watch on this list comes from a brand with a long track record and a warranty you can actually use, and the Casios at the bottom of the list are cheap enough that you don’t need to gamble.
How many watches do I need? You only need one, as long as it’s a watch you’ll wear every day. If you want a second, buy it for the job the first one can’t do. That might be a G-Shock for the gym if your daily watch is a Bambino, or a Bambino for weddings if your daily watch is a G-Shock.
Where to start
If you’ve read this far and still aren’t sure which watch to get, here’s the easiest way to decide. Look at what you wear 5 days a week, because that’s what your watch has to go with. If it’s mostly jeans and T-shirts, start at the bottom of this list, and you may never need to move up. If it’s a blazer most days, the Marlin or the Bambino is your watch. And if you still can’t decide after that, buy the Q Timex. It goes with almost everything, and a month of wearing it will tell you what you want next.
Prices listed here are list prices from each brand or an authorized dealer at the time of writing. They change, sometimes a lot, so check before you buy.
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