Author: Marcus Henry

I’d be the first to tell you I’m a pretty verbose guy. But this time, I promise I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’m going to break down each of the two types of mechanical watches and how you should wind it, with both the essentials and a little bit more. 

As a side note, if your watch is a quartz watch, you won’t need to wind it at all to keep it running: if it’s stopped and the crown is pushed in, you’ll just need a battery change. That’s all for the intro—let’s get right into it!

Automatic Watches

Most watches sold today are automatics. They use a winding rotor on the back to stay wound and keep running, so this makes your job here winding your watch a heck of a lot easier. If you’re not sure if your watch is an automatic, look for a winding rotor through the caseback (if it’s clear) or look for any sort of text on the dial or on the caseback that would indicate that it’s an automatic.

When an automatic watch stops running, you have two options to get it going again. First, you can just give it a few gentle shakes or spins to get the rotor whirling and get just enough charge back into the mainspring (the power supply for the watch) for it to get ticking again. If you’re a little too impatient for that, or just prefer manual winding, you can use the crown. Here’s how that should work.

First, take the watch off your wrist if you’re wearing it and hold it in your hand. If you wind the watch while it’s on your wrist, you can put too much tension on the winding mechanism because of the angle you hold the crown at and risk damaging something. 

Now that it’s in your hand, take hold of the crown—that’s the little knob sticking out of the side, usually at 3:00—between two fingers. Make sure it’s pushed all the way in, and then slowly rotate it clockwise. You should feel and hear a light grinding. 

It won’t be very tactile, sort of a light resistance and a faint whirring sound as you turn it. If you feel nothing and hear nothing, you’re probably turning it the wrong way and the winding has disengaged. Just switch the way you’re turning it.

Once the watch starts ticking again, you’re good to go! Give it another turn or two for good measure and slip the watch on your wrist after you set the time. The automatic winding rotor will make sure the watch gets wound the rest of the way to its max as you wear it throughout the day and will keep it wound as you continue to wear it.

If you take your watch off for the night and go to pick it up the next day, you should be good to go! As long as the watch is ticking already, you won’t need to worry about winding it. Just slip it on and let the automatic winding do its job.

Manual-Wind Watches

Manual-wind watches are a little trickier than automatic, but still quite easy to get the hang of. Many watch collectors find winding their manual watch to be an important daily ritual, of interacting with their watch and enjoying it before they slip it on for the day. Here’s how you’ll want to go about it.

As with the automatic winding, make sure you’re not wearing your watch before you go to wind it. Take it in one hand and be sure that the crown (again, the little knob sticking out, usually at 3:00) is pushed in all the way. Take the crown between two fingers of the other hand and gently rotate it clockwise. 

Unlike the automatic watches, you should hear and feel a clear tactile tick with every slight degree of rotation. It’s a sound that, after a while, you’ll come to love. If you don’t hear that, you’re probably winding it the wrong way and should switch directions.

Continue to gently turn the crown clockwise. It’ll take quite a few full rotations before the watch gets to full wind. The crown should turn easily, without much resistance. Eventually, you’ll feel it stop. Do not turn the crown any further when you feel this resistance. 

At this point, the watch is fully wound and is unable to accept any more wind. Forcibly turning the crown further could seriously damage the mainspring! But if you’re being relatively attentive and turning gently, you won’t have to worry about accidentally damaging something. You’ll feel your watch push back when you’re done winding.

Like I touched on a little earlier, manual winding is an opportunity to take a moment at the start of each day to interact with your watch and to, quite literally, give yourself the time. Enjoy it, and enjoy watching the face of your watch as you wind it. 

If your watch has a clear caseback, you can also flip it over and watch the winding gears turn and watch the balance wheel sputter into life as you gently wind. It’s a moment to cherish.

Conclusion

There, I kept it nice and short and sweet, with only a little bit of waxing philosophical about watch winding. But to be fair, a mechanical watch is a thing of artisanal beauty, and it deserves a moment of contemplation and enjoyment as you wind it each day. 

It’s a simple task, but one that can’t be passed up and certainly should be appreciated. Make the most of it!

Like American politics, watchmaking runs on a two-party system. Mechanical and quartz. Those are the only two domains—if you ignore the little third parties like tuning fork watches. Unlike the two-party system, however, it’s easy to appreciate and admire both sides of this wide and wonderful world.

Here at Exquisite Timepieces, we love mechanical watches. They’re hard not to love, actually. Mechanical microengineering coupled with tradition makes for some seriously beautiful works of art. 

But all too often, us watch nerds overlook the humbler side of things: quartz. Quartz is usually cheaper, and mass-produced. Yet it offers precision on a level that absolutely blows any mechanical watch out of the water, for a ridiculously cheap price. It’s hard to argue with that!

But where does this technology come from? How do quartz watches manage to be so cheap and yet so precise? How did they come to dominate almost all of the watch market globally—a whopping 96%? No matter whether you’re a seasoned watch collector or just taking your first steps into this deep world, read on for the answers to these questions and more!

History of Quartz Watches

If we want to understand what a quartz watch is today, it’s important to talk about where it has come from. Or at least, so my history teachers insisted all throughout my years in school. Regardless, their past is interesting (not just to history teachers, I promise!) and I think it’s well worth a good overview.

Quartz technology has been used in timekeeping for a long time—specifically, just under a century at the time of writing this! It was first used in clocks in 1927, thanks to the brilliant mind of Warren Marrison, who was working at the time at Bell Telephone Labs. 

Now I want to save a real analysis of how it works for the next section, but, for now, it’ll suffice to say that the lab discovered that quartz has some very interesting properties related to electricity, which we’ll cover later. Consider that a little teaser for what’s to come.

At the time, the equipment for quartz timekeeping was large and bulky, but it totally shook things up in the world of horology. All of a sudden, you have something that’s not mechanical at all, which is how things had been made for centuries before, and is suddenly far more accurate than even the finest hand-made mechanical clock. 

That’s pretty game-changing. Even the way people think about time itself is called into question. Suddenly, the way we measure time is so precise that the most accurate quartz clocks are able to tell us almost the exact time at any given moment. No more deviation of a few seconds per day—time is now something we have full control over.

Philosophical meanderings aside, it was the well-known Japanese brand Seiko that really pushed quartz technology further from where Bell Labs left off. The technology in these quartz clocks was large and unwieldy. Shrinking it down to wristwatch size was at the time completely out of the question. 

And yet, around 30 years later, Seiko began working on a quartz movement powered by a smaller 1.5V battery. Previously, their research had already led them to produce their own quartz crystals using a special process with hydrofluoric acid and a photolithography technique. 

Essentially, photolithography involves creating patterns on a surface by using light. A photosensitive material is applied to a certain area, and then, when it is exposed to light in a certain pattern, a chemical reaction takes place in those areas. Notably, it’s used in making integrated circuits and silicon chips in computing today.

This technology and innovation enabled Seiko to make great leaps and bounds forward in shrinking down quartz technology beyond what anyone would have thought possible when it was first introduced. 

In 1963, they created the Crystal Chronometer, a table clock that ran on a quartz movement. No more need for a tall longcase clock for quartz accuracy—now it was available to anyone in a small space in your house or on your desk.

They didn’t stop there. Just three years later, in 1966 and 1967, Seiko brought the first quartz pocket watches onto the market. Now, precision was wearable in your pocket. But wristwatches were the prevailing fashion of the day, so Seiko’s work wasn’t complete.

Then, on Christmas Day, 1969, it happened. The first quartz wristwatch was put up for sale. Precision on your wrist, down to the last second. The Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ came into the world, an elegant watch with a large cushion case, and, most importantly of all, a fully quartz movement. It would completely change the notion of what a wristwatch can be forever.

At this point, the Swiss industry was kinda freaking out. Switzerland was already associated with the finest mechanical watches, and precision was a pretty big deal for them. Many factories also mass-produced more affordable mechanical movements. 

Quartz absolutely demolished the Swiss pursuit of mechanical precision and quickly outcompeted mass-produced mechanical movements, which were far more expensive to make than quartz and, of course, less accurate.

For a while now, the Swiss had been trying to get on board with quartz. In 1962, the Centre Électronique Horloger (or, roughly, “Electronic Watchmaking Center,” abbreviated CEH) was formed by 20 Swiss brands, including Omega and Patek Philippe. 

If you don’t know those two names, the takeaway there is that they weren’t messing around. In 1966, they created their first prototype, the Beta-1, and the Beta-2 quickly followed in 1967.

Ultimately, the first Swiss mass-produced quartz movement would be the Beta-21, released April 10, 1970, by the CEH. 6,000 were initially made, and more followed. Member brands of the CEH put this movement to quick use, and Swiss watches by brands like the aforementioned Patek Philippe featuring a Beta-21 movement remain highly collectible today.

Despite the Swiss efforts, the introduction of quartz had a tremendously destabilizing effect on the industry. Many brands started to go under, unable to compete with the cheaper quartz markets flooding the industry. 

The demand for fine watchmaking plummeted as people snapped up the latest technology, which was more affordable anyway. Because of this, the 1970s were what’s known as the “Quartz Crisis,” a time of tremendous upheaval for the industry that left Switzerland in particular much the worse for wear and companies like Seiko on top of the market.

Nowadays, if you look up the most well-known watch brands, you’ll find that they’re owned by the Swatch Group. (I promise, this is related—stick with me.) Omega, Breguet, Longines, Blancpain: these pillars of mechanical watchmaking are associated with a brand that made colorful quartz watches, Swatch. 

At last, we begin to see the connection. In many ways, it was Swatch that saved the Swiss industry. In the face of Seiko’s dominance of the quartz market, they introduced their first wave of affordable quartz watches in 1983. 

They were colorful, trendy, eye-catching, and reestablished Swiss watchmaking as a force to be reckoned with. Swatch was able to buy many of these other brands that were at risk of collapsing and kept them afloat.

Things stabilized. The crisis slowly faded. And with time, mechanical watchmaking took back an important place in the world of horology. Yet because of these changes, today’s watchmaking world certainly looks very different from what it did just 50 years ago.

How Does a Quartz Watch Work?

Still with me? Great! Here, we’re going to get into that long-awaited analysis of how quartz watches actually function. Remember how I mentioned the significance of quartz’s special electric properties? 

As it turns out, if you squeeze a quartz crystal under a lot of pressure, it actually creates a small electrical current. That’s called piezoelectricity, in case you’re the type of person who collects big fancy words. By the same token, if you run an electrical current through a quartz crystal, something equally interesting happens: it vibrates.

If you know how a mechanical watch works, you probably know that it “beats” several times per second, usually four or five. This is due to the rotation of the balance wheel, which trips the escapement four to five times per second and thereby releases the gear train to advance. 

Typically, the more times the balance wheel beats per second, the more accurate the watch is, as any errors in one beat are much more averaged out. Here’s the kicker. When you run current through a quartz oscillator, it vibrates at a stunning rate of 32,768 beats per second, or 2¹⁵.

That’s the heart of any quartz watch, and it sure is an accurate one. With that many oscillations per second, it’s little wonder that quartz watches manage to be so accurate. The rest of the circuitry is designed to measure the oscillations and then trigger the movement of a small stepper motor once every 32,768 vibrations, or once a second. 

Since the motor doesn’t provide as much torque as a mechanical movement does, most quartz watches feature thin, lightweight hands that won’t be a drain on the battery. The battery, of course, powers all the circuitry and the current that runs through the quartz crystal. Unlike mechanical watches, which need to be serviced every five years, a quartz movement will need a battery change every few years and, for the most part, requires no other external attention. 

Eventually, it’ll break down and die, while a mechanical movement will last forever if it’s kept well-serviced. But then again, it’s a matter of a few moments and a few dollars to pop another entirely new quartz movement in the watch in the old one’s place.

Quartz Watches Today

Today, quartz watches are everywhere. Take a walk around any mall or major department store, and you’re sure to find a few for sale for less than your extra-special Starbucks order. But they’re not just limited to the lowest tiers of watchmaking. Some of the highest-end brands have made them a specialty, most notably, Grand Seiko and their 9F quartz movement. 

Leave it to Seiko, of course, to continue pioneering in the field of quartz: their 9F features specially grown quartz crystals and even a regulation process and extra torque so you can use large mechanical-style hands. F.P. Journe, one of the most famous independent brands, has made its quartz Élégante a staple of its collections, and it remains one of the most sought-after watches on the market to this day.

Lastly, Seiko’s Astron collection, which started it all, is continuing to pioneer quartz in different ways. Modern Astrons automatically connect to GPS satellites to get the time with extreme precision, no matter where you are in the world, and will automatically correct themselves if you cross timezones.

Conclusion

Like it or not, quartz technology is here to stay, and it’s just going to keep getting better. As such, I humbly suggest that you embrace it wholeheartedly. Yes, even you, the seasoned mechanical watch collector in the back. 

With such staggering precision and affordability, it’s little wonder that quartz watches can be found everywhere you look, from Walmart to claw machines, adorned with every imaginable case and dial from a sturdy G-Shock to your favorite lovable cartoon character. 

But quartz is about more than just being cheap and making for some great character watches. It’s the future of watchmaking, and it’s already here now. It’s not for nothing that the modern Seiko Astron was one of the first watches I fell in love with, even after I discovered mechanical watchmaking. 

Quartz and mechanics are yin and yang, perfect complements that make the world of watchmaking all the more wide and wonderful. What’s not to love about that?

Automatic watches are, at the same time, hands-off and beautiful. You get all the majestic ticking beauty of a manually-wound timepiece with no need to wind it up every day.

Yet some of the best-known luxury automatic watches command incredibly steep prices, like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. With prices like these, many feel that it’s better to go for a simple quartz watch and call it a day.

Thankfully, this is not the only way. Many microbrands and even larger ones offer exceptional timepieces with automatic movements at a fraction of the cost of more luxury brand offerings.

They’re wearable, beautiful, and if kept serviced, they can last a lifetime. All this for the price of a decent quartz watch. What’s not to love?

History of Automatic Watches

Automatic watches are a category that has been around for nearly a hundred years and has profoundly shaped the state of mechanical watchmaking in today’s world. They’re useful and versatile, as we all know—but where did they come from?

Most watch nerds are under the impression that the first automatic wristwatch was the Rolex Oyster Perpetual. In actuality, we need to credit this invention to an English watchmaker named John Harwood, who invented it in 1926. From there, the system has slowly evolved. 

In many vintage watches—notably those created by Omega—the spinning rotor would spin and hit against a spring, and this compression would wind the watch.

This “bumper” system was less efficient than what’s used today, the “Perpetual” winding system introduced by Rolex. Automatic winding may be an old invention, but it remains one of the most useful today.

Top 15 Best Automatic Watches Under $500

So, if you’re looking for that automatic versatility and not interested in splurging on a high-luxury watch, where should you go? Right here! Here are 15 of the best automatic watches, all at varying prices under $500.

Seiko 5 Sports SRPD51

At a retail of $325, the SRPD51 comes right in at a mid-range for our budget, and it sure does so in style. The beating heart of this watch is the caliber 4R36, which is automatic and can run for a full 41 hours on a full wind. 

You can wear this piece once every day, and it’ll always be wound for you, which is pretty fantastic and makes for a super hands-off wearing experience. In terms of the presentation, I’m a big fan of that unassuming blue sunray dial and blue bezel, which shine with just utter oceanic dive-watch charm.

My only gripe is that very unfortunate crown position at 4:00—but thankfully, with the automatic works, you won’t have to make too much use of it.

Tissot Classic Dream Swissmatic ref. T129.407.16.051.00

We just barely squeaked in under budget with this one at $495, thankfully, because excluding this watch would have been tough. Compared to the SRPD51 we just touched on, this Tissot is really a classy dream (sorry). It runs on the Tissot Swissmatic movement, which is an evolution of the Swatch SISTEM51 (more on that later!). 

The Swissmatic movement is pretty fantastic, notably featuring an insane 72 hours of power reserve—for context, the Rolex 3230 only has around 70—and, of course, an automatic winding rotor. Overall, the presentation of the watch is extremely clean and refined, with a large black sunray-finished dial and thin lugs. 

The hands are my favorite type, what we call a dauphine style. There’s something about it that just works so well with a dressy watch. And those polished applied indices, interrupted by the printed minutes track? Perfection.

Swatch x Blancpain Ocean of Storms

In my opinion, the Ocean of Storms is the culmination of Swatch’s bioceramic Fifty Fathoms series. It retails for $400, but you’re only able to pick up one of these bad boys in a Swatch brick-and-mortar store, so here’s hoping there’s one near you. 

The Ocean of Storms features the Swatch SISTEM51, which is made out of a record-breaking low of just 51 components and only one screw. Thankfully, its “simplicity” doesn’t even begin to suggest that it’s a low-quality movement: it still has an insane 90-hour power reserve and is regulated by a laser before it leaves Swatch’s factory for extra precision. 

The case itself is just so darn cool with that completely blacked-out dive watch look. The dial is black as well with a lovely sunray finish to give it that extra shine and you get a healthy dose of lume on the hands and numerals as well to make for one seriously legible dive watch. What more could you ask for?

Seiko Presage Cocktail Time SRPK15

Watches take inspiration from all kinds of sources: movies, books, architecture, art—the list goes on for a while. The SRPK15, however, is a totally new theme. The Cocktail Time collection from Seiko is actually inspired by Tokyo’s cocktail lounges, and this specific model by the Blue Moon cocktail. 

With this beauty, you get 41 hours of power reserve and a custom gold automatic rotor (so you can watch it spin around in a little dazzle of light) thanks to the caliber 4R35. The dial features an interesting pattern which is much like traditional sunray finishing but much deeper and more emphasized, which adds some lovely texture. 

This texture is covered by a rich blue fumé effect, a gorgeous smoky gradient from the outside towards the center. The final touch I want to comment on is that pop of shine from the gold seconds hand, which really just hits all the right buttons for me. The SRPK15 retails for $450.

Citizen Tsuyosa Automatic ref. NJ0150-56X

Currently on sale for $360, the Tsuyosa Automatic is one of the best integrated sports watches you can get at its price point. It’s very wearable thanks to its 40mm case size, and the bracelet is absolutely gorgeous with its Rolex Presidential-style bracelet with mirrored inner lugs and brushed outer. 

The dial is such a rich color of green, which you so rarely see in watches today but is really well-executed here. The addition of a cyclops lens over the date window makes the date super easy to reference at a glance. The hands and indices are polished and faceted with little dollops of lume. Almost everything, in fact, is perfectly executed… except the 4:00 crown, which is a choice I lament deeply. 

On a final positive note, the caliber 8210 automatic movement on the inside is absolutely gorgeous thanks to its gilt finishing, and you will definitely find yourself taking constant looks through that sapphire caseback at its mesmerizing workings.

Orient Kamasu ref. RA-AA0003R39B

The Orient Kamasu is razor-sharp and extremely modern, taking inspiration from the deadly barracuda for its off-white indices and hands, which are meant to look dangerously like teeth. I particularly like the color of the dial, which has a sunburst finish and, depending on the lighting, can appear as a deep burgundy or a rich bright red finish. 

The case is quite unassumingly brushed and my eye is also remarkably drawn to the bezel, whose fluting looks to me rather much like bite marks, perhaps from our dear eponymous Kamasu. 

My only gripe here is the non-color-matched date windows, which, to my eye, stick out like sore thumbs. To be fair, that does make them all the more visible, but I do wish they were a little more camouflaged by that rich red dial. This one will currently run you just $335, a great watch for well within our budget.

Seiko 5 Sports GMT SSK033

At $475, the SSK033 is certainly pushing it, but never fear—it’s a great watch for its price. It runs on the caliber 4R34, which clocks in with a solid 41 hours of power reserve and, of course, automatic winding. 

Its presentation is that of an elegant dive watch which clearly takes cues from the Rolex Submariner “Batman” thanks to its black-and-blue bezel but manages to present a watch that feels fresh and new thanks to its crisp white dial. The indices are just ever so slightly off-white, which helps them pop against the dial without clashing. 

I love the way the accent blue on the GMT hand, and text works with the sunray white dial and cream indices. It’s just a killer color combo. Yet, alas, there’s another 4:00 crown here. It’s one brushstroke gone awry in a painting that otherwise creates a wonderfully harmonious whole. Can’t win ’em all, I guess.

Laco Augsburg 42 ref. 861688.2

Laco offers some of the best customization options I’ve ever seen for a watch of this price, starting at a base retail of $410. It’s a slick and clean pilot watch style with some amazing heritage because the Laco brand has been around since 1925. 

Upgrade options include swapping out the movement for an even better Laco 31 for an additional $70, adding anti-reflective coating to the crystal for $60, and more. The base movement, I should add, is a Laco 2S, which is a modified workhorse Miyota 82S0. The dial is squeaky clean with that matte black base, white text, and lumed numerals. 

My only gripe is that it feels as if the greenish numerals clash with the white text, a visual image that leaves me just a little unsettled. As a final note, the Augsburg 42 comes on an excellent vintage leather strap, which is already patinated, so it will be unique and have its own color and style variations. 

A watch’s strap is all too often overlooked, and in this case, the special attention Laco has paid it is a seriously nice touch.

Bulova American Clipper ref. 97A154

The American Clipper, aptly named by the American-founded brand Bulova, is an ultra-classy dress watch that just slips in under budget at $495. The case is clean polished gold with thin lugs, and the dial matches thanks to its matte black finish and gold indices. 

Everything is executed to perfection for its simple level—in particular, I’m a big fan of the depth created by the sector dial. At 6:00, you get both an open heart (to see the ticking balance wheel) and sub-seconds indicator. 

I do have a few points to touch on here: the staggered position of the open heart and sub-seconds is a little strange but visually interesting; the silver movement through the open heart does clash a touch with the case; and the text on the sub-seconds just feels not quite classy enough to fit with the watch. These, thankfully, are all small details that hardly detract from the elegant and refined whole.

Timex Marlin Automatic 39mm ref. TW2W58800

For $299, the Marlin is simultaneously one of our most affordable options and one of the coolest. It’s instantly unique and eye-catching with that cushion-case shape, which is very well made and is visually intriguing with its brushed top and then polished bevels which sweep over into the lugs. 

The dial is an unassuming matte black but the silver sub seconds at 9:00 pops out to really make it an interesting layout worth a second glance. It’s also very thin at just 9mm thick and 39mm across, so it’s quite wearable. 

The closed caseback, which conceals its movement, an automatic Miyota, is engraved with a depiction of a Marlin and has an exhibition window where you can see the balance wheel. Overall, you can tell a serious amount of work has gone into the design and layout of this really simple but elegant piece.

Unimatic UC2 Classic

Perhaps more than any other microbrand, Unimatic has created an instantly recognizable design language at prices that are shockingly affordable. Their UC2 Classic, perhaps the definition of their design, retails for $425. This watch is almost breathtakingly simple at first glance, thanks to its circularly brushed case and bezel. 

The matte black dial almost looks unmarked until you look again and see the text positioned unusually below the hands—this, too, however, is kept clean and modest. It runs on the standard Seiko NH35A, which gets you 41 hours of power reserve with automatic winding. 

It has practically everything you could want from a tool watch and none of the frills in a design package so classy and under-the-radar you could pair it with a suit.

Seiko Prospex King Turtle SRPE03

All hail the king! Just look at that magnificent cushion case and stamped tapisserie dial—if you could turn a turtle into a watch, it would look a heck of a lot like this. 200 meters of water resistance ensure that the King Turtle can thrive in its natural habitat, and it’s a monster of a legible and visible watch with a 45mm case and its high-contrast white-on-black lumed dial. 

I’ll let you admire the rest of the watch yourself, but I also want to point out its gorgeous gold accent text and seconds hand, which work perfectly with the rest of the dial to provide just the right amount of pop. And the best part is you can find the SRPE03 for $500 on Exquisite Timepieces.

Nodus Sector Sport Glacial

At $475, this next watch is still an incredible piece for its price. The dial is such a lovely shade of blue which comes alive with icy sparkles thanks to its sunray finish. The applied numerals and indices seem to be a little exaggerated in height, which creates a sense of depth and contrast that’s accentuated by the sector dial construction (hence the name!). 

To ensure things aren’t too bright and shiny in the dial for it to be really used, the indices and hands have a matte black trim and are filled with lume, so they’ll have superb legibility. That lovely brushed case flows right into a 3-link integrated bracelet, which even has quick-release spring bars if you’re interested in throwing a leather bracelet on it. All this in a neat wearable 38mm package.

Lorier Neptune Series IV

I’ve covered the Lorier Neptune before, and I’m always left just in awe of how spectacular this watch is for a microbrand piece at $499. It’s designed like it was made in 1957 along the vintage dive watch icons by Omega, Rolex, and Blancpain that still have a stranglehold on the watch market today. 

Everything here is clean, simple, and vintage-inspired, from the gilt text to the sans-serif font used on the bezel. A final fine point that I really admire before I leave you to enjoy the watch for yourself is that Lorier completely shunned the use of any fauxtina on the dial. 

While I do enjoy a good off-colored lume look, Lorier’s vision of designing this watch as if it is fresh out of the 50s means having clean white lume just like a new watch back then would have had. It’s a brilliant touch.

Baltic HMS 003 Salmon

Our final watch for this article comes in at just under $400, leaving plenty of budget room, and it’s easily one of my favorite watches at that price. It runs on the workhorse Miyota 8315, which gives you a staggering 60 hours of power reserve. 

That dial is just gorgeous, with different finishings, polished applied indices, large curvy hands, and a vintage printed minutes track. As a final note, I want to touch on the leather straps Baltic includes, which are absolutely stunning. 

The watch comes on a quick-release black saffiano leather strap, which is an extremely high-quality calf leather, but you can also swap out for others like different colors of saffiano leather or a sweet vintage-inspired beads-of-rice bracelet, which looks superb. You really can’t go wrong with this one.

Conclusion

Automatic watches don’t have to be a forbidding category with staggering price tags. You can find spectacular watches in every category at affordable prices, and I’ve collected here just a few of the best. Whether you found one that speaks to you or not, go out and check out more from these brands! You might just find your next daily companion.

Sports watches are almost certainly the most popular type of watch on the market today. The genre is typically applied to mechanical timepieces, but as a concept, it’s clear it finds its fulfillment in smartwatches. 

The new cutting edge of watch development, wearable electronics, has led to some absolutely stunning timepieces that do so much more than any mechanical watch ever could. 

What they lack in tradition, they make up for in providing a daily companion on your wrist that can do anything from interface with your phone to take you off the grid into the depths of the Amazon rainforest. And that’s the beauty of a sports watch: it follows you anywhere, your faithful companion from day to day.

But for such an important companion and support throughout your day, your choice of watch becomes all the more important. Whether you’re looking for a Swiss brand and an elegant style or a beater watch that can accompany you on military expeditions, this list has something for everyone. All it takes is to find the one that speaks to you!

What to Look for in Sports Watches

First, let’s dive into some of the criteria you should be analyzing when you’re trying to determine what the best sports watch pick is for you. The two top criteria are design and functionality—in whichever order speaks to you first. 

If you’re wearing a sports watch, chances are high it’ll be making frequent appearances on your wrist, so it should be a style that you enjoy and appreciate and which works well with your clothes. 

Naturally, almost every sports smartwatch also comes with a different built-in suite of functional applications and sensors, so that, too, should be one of the top factors in selecting a watch tailored to your lifestyle.

Other factors are also worth considering. Depending on your worldview, you might be interested in choosing a carbon-neutral watch made from sustainable material. Or perhaps you’ve had a particular brand personally recommended to you by a friend or relative. Regardless of what’s motivating your decisions, there are many sides to this same coin, and it’s worth exploring all of them.

Top 10 Best Sports Watches

Now that you know what to look for, let’s get right into the breakdowns! This list is extremely diverse, with smart sports watches for all tastes and styles. There’s a variety of price ranges and features. Overall, I know there’s something for everyone here. Let’s get started!

Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar Edition Carbon Gray DLC Titanium with Black Band

The Fenix 7X Pro is an incredibly versatile watch and one of the best all-around picks on this list. For $1,000, it’s not cheap, but also not as expensive as a smartwatch of this quality could be. The case is incredibly versatile in wearability, thanks to its black profile and three available sizes (42, 47, and 51mm).

In terms of functionality, the Fenix 7X Pro is one of the best. The Sapphire Solar Edition refers to its solar charging ability, which is still rather rare even among advanced smartwatches. This means it can run up to a whopping 37 days in smartwatch mode on one charge if you keep it exposed to sunlight. 

It also has a suite of health and fitness features, such as heart rate and real-time stamina. Overall, it’s a rugged beast, tested to US military standards, that can follow you even off the grid for over a month straight.

Casio G-Shock Move DWH5600MB8A9

It’s a mouthful of a name, and a mouthful of a watch. The DWH5600MB8A9 takes up practically an entire quarter of the line of text on your screen right now and will take up quite a large chunk of your wrist too at its 51.1mm x 44.5mm case size. It’s made of bio-based resin, meaning it wears light, can take a beating, and is eco-friendly.

As expected for its retail of $320, it’s not nearly as functional as the Garmin we just covered above, but it does feature some solid specs, like automatic power saving which makes the screen go blank when your watch is in the dark. 

It connects to your phone for easy time setting and has support for a wide variety of physical activities and health features, such as heart rate, sleep measurement, and blood oxygen. For a third of the price of the Garmin, you really could do a lot worse than this G-Shock.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

It’s not for nothing that the Apple Watch has swept markets worldwide, selling millions in the decade that it’s been out now. Its design is among the most iconic the watch world has ever seen, and the aptly named Ultra 2 is now the most advanced evolution of the Apple Watch. 

At $799, its price tag reflects that, but the watch lives up to the cost. In terms of design, you’re looking at a relatively large 49mm titanium case in either sandy beige or black: simple but elegant.

Tapping into the functionality side of things, its display is extremely advanced: an OLED screen with a high brightness of 3000 nits. It has all the health features you could hope for, like sleep tracking, ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin temperature sensing.

Unfortunately, the battery life is a lot more limited than some of its competitors at just 36 hours between charges. It won’t be following you on extended outdoors trips like some of the other sports watches on this list—which is fine for most of you but might not quite meet the needs of others.

COROS Pace Pro

The Pace Pro is the perfect mixture of stylish and unobtrusive. It’s offered in three color options (black, gray, and blue) and sports a 46mm case, which is a very middle-of-the-road size for smartwatches and should be a good wearable pick for almost anyone. In addition to the small size, it only weighs 37 grams, so you won’t even notice it on your wrist when you’re not using it.

Its battery life is a very considerable 20 days in smartwatch mode, which is stunning when you realize that it doesn’t use solar charging or anything else to stay topped off. You also get personalized workouts and training plans, and interfacing with lots of apps like Strava and Apple Health. All this for just $349!

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra

Step aside, Apple—Samsung’s contender for the smartwatch market is a great pick that certainly will allow some Android users to one-up their iPhone friends in a few ways. The Galaxy Watch Ultra has a slick cushion-case shape made of titanium, which means it can both take a beating and look good doing it. 

Plus, Samsung has introduced a fascinating system for switching out straps quickly, which honestly leaves me wondering why more watch companies don’t use this, it’s that easy.

In terms of functionality, the headline feature here is the addition of Galaxy AI to enhance all of the health readings that the various sensors will provide you and ultimately break them down into useful wellness insights. 

Most other smartwatches will use simpler computer algorithms to do the same, so the addition of AI provides a pretty serious edge over the competition. At a retail of $530, it also manages to edge out its Apple competitor in price. I’m not picking sides, I’m just saying…

Garmin Tactix 7 AMOLED Edition

Whether you’re in active service or just dream of living life like a tactical agent, the Tactix 7 is easily the right pick for you. It’s not a cheap watch, at $1,400, but the functionality of this watch is insane. 

You get up to 31 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, plus multi-band GPS and preloaded maps. Tack on to this all the best Garmin health features like heart rate, pulse oxygen, hydration, and energy level monitoring. Good mix, right? Now throw in an entire suite of purpose-built tactical features. 

We’re talking a kill switch to wipe data, compatibility with night vision goggles, stealth mode, jumpmaster mode, and even an Applied Ballistics software.

Pretty sure Garmin just dropped the mic on this one.

COROS Vertix 2S

There are some of us who came to this article looking for something extreme. That, like yourself, pushes boundaries. To you, I humbly present the COROS Vertix 2S. It retails for $699 and comes in three colorways: “Earth” (blue), “Moon” (pale gray), and “Space” (black). It was purpose-built for adventuring: climbers, snow sporters, ultra-marathon runners, and mountaineers, this one’s for you.

COROS proudly declares that they’re the only brand with GPS algorithms designed for long climbs, and the watch easily swaps out to be placed on a carabiner if you’d rather have it off your wrist while scaling your latest summit. You also get a ton of key information for adventuring: nutrition alerts, sun movements, storm alerts, altitude mode, and safety alerts. 

The case is very large (50.3mm), so you get a big 1.4” display and oversized tactical buttons that are easy to press even with gloves on. In my opinion, it just barely gets the edge over its competition with a few of those key useful features, and for that reason it’s definitely worth your consideration.

Suunto Race All Black

Perhaps you’ve been scrolling through thus far and find yourself saying, “I’m really just looking for something standard.” Not too expensive, not too advanced. Just a nice wearable sports watch. I think the Suunto Race is just the right option for you. Its “All Black” color is a nice bright eye-catching yellow (kidding, it’ll fly very well under the radar). 

It really just gives you all the standard smartwatch features you could want at a retail of $449. Bright AMOLED screen, 26-day battery life (which is really good for its price!), 1.43” touch screen, digital crown for quickly scrolling through options on the screen, waterproof to 100m, 95+ different sports modes, phone pairing, and personalized training feedback.

It gives you all the smartwatch staples and then takes quite a few of them a step further, all at an entry-level price. It sure isn’t the Porsche 911 of the smartwatch world, but it just might be that cool-looking souped-up Honda Civic you keep seeing down the street.

Garmin Enduro 3

Just as the Vertix 2S was made for extreme athletes of all kinds, the Enduro 3 is targeted specifically for extreme endurance athletes. To this end, Garmin packed in a whopping 36 days of battery life… not including the solar charging, which cranks it all the way up to a continuous 90 days of functionality in smartwatch mode. 

For all the ultra runners out there, you also get an LED flashlight for your trekking late at night, plus preloaded topographic maps to guide your path. For durability, Garmin crafted the bezel from titanium, and you get a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, too, so your off-the-beaten-path trails won’t end up with a beaten watch. 

At $899, its functionality doesn’t come cheap, but it’s one of the very best out there if you’re an adventurous type or just someone who just really dislikes charging their watch.

TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 x Oracle Red Bull Racing Edition

What do you get when you cross Swiss watchmaking with a history in sports timing with one of the most renowned Formula One racing teams? This: the special edition TAG Heuer and Oracle Red Bull Racing team collaboration. 

It’s not nearly as functional as the others we’ve covered above, admittedly, but you get just enough built-in tools to make it a solid everyday wear with heart rate sensors and a suite of proprietary TAG Heuer sports applications. 

With this, you get more than enough cool racing design to make it a watch you don’t just strap on in the morning but one you feel racing thrills to wear.

I am, admittedly, a little disappointed after the cutting-edge tech of the above watches to see that this doesn’t have as much to offer, but you do still get enough functionality to make it advantageous to your overall health. But that’s not the point here: the star of the show is the Oracle Red Bull racing team, and practically every element of this watch exudes pride in the team. 

As not much of a racing fan myself, I struggle to connect with the team, but as a watch, it’s still more than cool enough to make it a really good pick, especially if you’re an Oracle Red Bull fan.

At a retail of $1,950, that Swiss brand name and design know-how sure doesn’t come cheap, but it all comes together to make a really solid watch for its price.

Conclusion

The world of sports watches is wide and wonderful, so this list was by no means exhaustive. But whether you’re a high-performing endurance athlete, a racing fan, or just looking for something to interface with your phone, there’s something for you here. I hope you enjoy your next new daily companion!