I completely agree with your point of view. Those post/videos of "affordable" $1000 watches dont resonate to me. $300 sounds like a good sweet spot.

I’ve gone the other way here - dinner with family of 4 can easily be $200 for a meh meal. I should be able to spend more than that on a watch that will last years. My most expensive watch is $270 and I don’t want a big collection, but I may extend to the $1000 range for my next watch. I’ve talked myself into the fact that I have “room” for 1-2 more so I’m in no rush.

And I don’t want to buy any more sight unseen so it’ll be a while unless I dedicate serious time to shopping as options are limited where I am (Massachusetts) except in Boston.

Edit: but agree I don’t care about what others think of my seiko /citizens. I love them and enjoy them.

One simple guideline could be: if the idea of losing or breaking a specific watch is stressful for financial reasons, it's not affordable.

FULL DISCLOSURE... I do have a more expensive watch. My smartwatch!! I've always been against them. But it was bought on the advice of my cardiologist (and wife) after my heart attack and open heart surgery. I still prefer my normal watches.

I think I might like shopping for watches more than actually owning them. I enjoy looking around seeing the designs and craftsmanship and I have a whole folder of favorited marked watches on my browser. But probably 99% of the time I will be wearing my smartwatch as it gives me quick easy access to some health monitors I need and depend on. I did take the plunge and finally got a watch I went with a nice looking "affordable" casio ediface as this will be a date night at most wearable. But yes youtube cracks be up lets look at the top 5 most affordable watches less than $10K. We have different definitions of affordable.

Chinese manufacturers such as steeldives\watchdives are objectively the best bang for buck and use seiko movements (quartz and automatic)

Cheaper seiko\citizen\orient lines

Lots of good vintage swiss\japanese quartz as well

If your budget is low I also highly recommend hunting local listings and clearance in nearby retail stores and trying to find a good deal, my favourite grabs for 150> were sourced this way.

Casio Duro is the budget GOAT. However, if you want an automatic, look at the automatic Invicta Pro Diver (but they have quartz too, so read carefully before purchasing) or a Used Seiko 5 on chrono24 or Jomashop.

Casio (including g shock) and Timex are your best bets at that price. Maybe some Citizen Eco-drives.

I have a Bambino as my dress watch, I wear it occasionally and prefer divers for the most part, it’s perfectly good for the price point.

The Mako line is great too. Not sure what they go for now but I have a Ray II that I got for around $150 in 2012 that has been amazing

Under $150; Watchdives (both auto and quartz options.

Casio

Seiko 5

Timex

If you are new to watches, make sure you understand the difference between a quartz and an automatic watch.

Seiko SNE529 100m water resistant so it is safe for pool or shower. Solar powered so it doesn't need battery changes.

I have the white dial version of Vaer’s field watch and really like it - would have probably gone with this one if I didn’t have mostly black dials otherwise:

https://www.vaerwatches.com/products/s3-calendar-field-watch

Bambino is a great choice. I love mine, and other people regularly comment on it positively.

There are tons of Seiko 5s under $200

Take a look at Mido, they have long history as a brand and some very nice offerings in your price range.

Seiko has some sub-$500 watches that are very nice.

The sub-$1K microbrand world is where I play.

There's *_so much_* excellent stuff out there, it's actually mind-boggling.

Here's my microbrands list as it existed as of like 4:30 AM (puppy just got neutered, "Look how they massacred my boy!") on 9/25. I've added a few more since then, LOL. Know that there are *many* more microbrands out there, this list is just my personal "hit list," makers who have stuff that I'm interested in, in one way or another. I've got a number of microbrands since I decided to not go the way of the luxury watches and thus could spread the love, but I ain't rich, so this is not what I've got in my own personal inventory, ROFL!

That said, I do have a few.

https://preview.redd.it/9g8wvue2tprf1.png?width=1056&format=png&auto=webp&s=d43ff1d8d9daef39d3afb2fa9599bdd74b1d4148

"Even" at the sub-$1K mark, the quality is just amazing. There's a couple in my collection -a Wise and a Henry Archer, to be specific- that have absolutely *perfect* dials. There's not a single thing out of place, there's not a single piece of debris or dust under the crystal: which is oftentimes more than I can say for even luxury (non-bespoke) watches, like Rolex.

And the lume - wow, the lume.

I'm an academic scientist by trade, so I try to look at things objectively, Even my most prized possessions - I'm usually pretty fair in my assessments of where they're outstanding, and where they could use a bit of improvement. Towards that, I'm always surprised why not more of us watch-nerds would spend the $30 for even an el-cheapo clip-on macro lens for our smartphones....until I remind myself that not everyone wants to know the ugly. =D

There's also a lot of great high-end productions out there, but I'm out of my lane to speak on those. If you'd like to play with microbrands, though, I'd be more than willing to nerd out with you for a bit!

Nice! Thank you!

I'll definitely have to have a look at those.

This isn't meant to be a complete list of microbrands. For example, there's Yema (which is classified by many as an "independent", and there's also the lager "Chinese Watch" houses, such as San Martin.

There's also several well-known brands that I did not include.

That's because this list contains only the brands that have one or more watches that directly spark my interest - either enough so that I've already moved on one of their pieces, or ones that I plan to hit or aspire to, at some point.

But thank you for your contributions, as I'm always looking to learn! I will definitely check out those suggestions, and, of-course, bookmark those that I like.

PS: My bank account does not thank you. LOL!

Oh, OK, OK.....I see what you've done, here. Nice!

I *love* the Balticus supercompressors. That's on the hit list.

Drooling over too many G. Gerliach watches for me too list. I didn't even think about a square-pillowcase with a 12-o'clock crown *and* pushers. My eyes have been opened. On the list, for sure.

Thank you!!!

Hamilton Khaki Field Auto is a great field watch.

Sure!

The Wise is an AD810A - https://wisetimepiece.com/products/adamascus-ad810a

The Henry Archer is a Havstrøm in the Atlas colorway - https://henryarcher.com/en-us/collections/havstrom/products/havstrom-meteorite-atlas

I've always gone with Casio as my non-smartwatch watch so to speak. I've always had a soft spot for the analog digital varieties. My current Casio is the GA-B2100 which I'm very happy with

Timex Expedition North

Casio Royale (AE1200)

What is that first Casio? I dig it.

Casio Duro

G Shock GW-6900 best 70 dollar watch, potentially the best watch in my whole collection.

I got my G-Shock for $50 and it was on my wrist for about 4 years

That depends largely on your definitions of "Cheap" and "suck".

Look at Casio and Timex.

MVMT is pretty good and its's not bank breaking, but it will still cost you more than a cheap one you can get at target. https://www.mvmtwatches.com/

I have the orient kanno in black and the mako in blue, and they are both good solid watched that deliver beyond their price. BUT, I also have my eye on the yellow Bulova. The sweep second hand in a quartz movement, and the dial details look awesome. Joma has it with a rubber strap for $365. It’s on my short list.

Having owned two Kamasus, that's what I'd recommend. It's an incredible watch.

I love that bulova, smoothest sweep except for a spring drive too

The yellow dial is outstanding!!!

You have smart eyes.

Casio is the best according to my opinion. I might be biased because Casios are the only affordable watches I've ever tried. Timex is good at making watches at affordable rates but sometimes it lacks design or sometimes it becomes a cheap knockoff brand. Titan gives a luxurious feeling without being too expensive but I don't think it has much fame among the watch community. Fossil makes nice watches too and it has a lot of good-looking watches and I don't know a lot about this company. If there are some nice brands that I missed, please let me know.

I love my Orient Mako, but the fact that I never have to worry about the battery in my Citizen makes it one of my favorites. Setting the time is one thing, but the Mako has day and date windows so it's just kind of a pain in the ass every time I go more than a day or two without wearing it - which makes me want to wear it even less.

Titan and fossil seem like gimmick pieces. Casio is definitely a timeless watch brand, the best of the bunch. Timex has a few good offerings but I wouldn’t spend my own money on them personally except maybe the marliner. I think other brands offer more for the same price.

Casio, Seiko, Orient. The Japanese Trinity.

Fossil are meh, never heard of Titan.

EDIT: Let’s not forget Citizen. For whatever reason I thought I’m only allowed to pick three brands. Great brand if you dig their designs and sizes

I like a lot "Bulova Accutron II" with a leather strap. This is what I like. For a good watch, I find the price to be very reasonable.

How much are you willing to spend?

I’ll jump on the bandwagon and tell you to look at Seiko series 5. It’s a big joke around here that everybody has one but honestly outside of here and r/watchescirclejerk you don’t see them on too many wrists. I just picked up a Seiko SRPB79 and it sits shoulder to shoulder with Rolex and Jaeger watches in my Watchbox.

I haven't seen anyone mention Timex and Swatch in here yet!

Deep blue, especially when they run a 40% off sale, are great divers for the money.

What's relatively inexpensive to you? I look at the $1000-$1500 range as relatively inexpensive compared to the standard $3K-$8K that a lot of Omegas, Breitlings, Tudors, and Rolexes will set you back.

But if you're talking about $100-$150, that's a totally different list of suggestions.

Check out the watch buying guide in the sidebar.