Wrist watch recommendations

[Ollie78]

I wear a Citizen promaster at work and most of the time otherwise as well. It is solar powered, very accurate robust and looks good.
For straps I use canvas ones or currently a leather nato, I get a few at a time from ebay or when geckota have a sale on. They last about 6 months then I just change them.
The promaster tough on the metal strap is a great watch that I want to get, when I can find it cheap.
I also like Seiko automatics like the 5 sports and the prospex range they are great watches too, I have a couple but always just wear my Citizen at work.
My best ever watch was a Seiko SARG11 from Japan with 6R15. It was great in every way but got lost in a hotel in Belgium. I looked for another but the price has more than trippled because they stopped production. Still miss it .

It's great that there are many budget but good watches around.
Saying that I really fancy a Sinn or a Damasko for work but not with my budget
Or a Seiko spring drive titanium landmaster.

I have zero interest in any form of smart watch at all. I don't need to be further connected to my phone, quite the opposite.

Ollie

 

[KimG]

Casio Waveceptor, always accurate as it sets itself to a time signal. I like mine anyway.

 

[Fergie 307]

I collect seiko 5, Citizen 7 and Vostok and other Russian Soviet era watches. All mechanical. For every day I usually wear a Vostok, massive range, and pretty much indestructible. They do both manual and automatics. You can buy a brand new manual wind for less than £40, and an automatic for about £75. There is always a vast selection of vintage ones on a bay. For special occasions I have a Rolex sub, or probably my favourite which is a 1957 Russian Sturmanskie pilot watch, a la Yuri Gagarin. The Russian watches are all well made, and tend to have pretty straightforward robust movements which are easy to service. Mostly products of the First Moscow Watch Factory group. They made watches under goodness knows how many different brands, and were the biggest watch manufacturers in the world in the 1950's and 60's.
It was these that first got me into watch repairing as a hobby. Very satisfying when you see a watch that might not have run for thirty years come back to life as you reassemble it.

 

[jcassidy]

Ah if we're talking watches... I pick up Seiko SKX007 or SKX009 automatic diver's watches for about €80-90 at auction. These are pretty indestructible as long as the owner hasn't opened it, so a good bet at auction. A SKX007 had been my daily watch for a couple of years.

I've picked up other automatic watches like Citizen at auction only to find they can't be serviced without great expense because the movement is uncommon or blah blah.

I also found a Tissot Seastar 660 automatic for that price range which was my daily watch for a long time, but the enamel on the bevel started flaking. Easy to service, if I ever get around to sending it off.

For workshop, I use a gshock. I had one when I was younger, which took fierce abuse working in heavy industries in Oz. Blasted by furnaces, soaked in Acetone (not at same time), dunked in saltwater, chemical baths, you name it. Ugliest watch you ever saw.

Posh watch is an IWC Portofina, gift from my father in law. That only comes out for occasions and job interviews.

Other than for workshop, I don't use quartz watches anymore. Got sick of replacing batteries and having to crack open cases.

 

[Cabinetman]

Semi retired so I don’t need one and it’s amazing after a while I found that I can estimate the time to within a few minutes, it’s a very strange thing when you wake up and it’s dark and you know what time it is, just wish they wouldn’t keep beggering about with the hour. Ian
Ps it used to be a wafer thin Omega with a mineral glass that looked as good after 20 years as the day I got it.

 

[bryan267]

Instarted with an Accurist for £160, it lasted ten years and would have gone on if they removed the water, waterproof but didnt like sea water. I wouldnt buy another as the servicing costs rose from £16 to £50 every two years and that was a long time ago.

I replaced it with a tissot which was also a 2 year service battery, but on a recent service they said they dont make parts for it anymore after just 16 years, i dont believe that, and offered me a replacement at discount, paid £140 for a rrp £400 which takes its charge from movement, so no more service costs. Like others i dont take mine off other than to infrequently clean it. The new tissot losses time, about 10 seconds a month. For that reason i wouldnt recomemd.

As a backup for when watches were being serviced i got a citizen with a solar panel face for about £160, while I don’t wear it often, it sits on my desk where it keeps getting sunlight and is running fine after about 10 years, i just prefer the look of the tissot. But the citizen is a watch i would recommend on the basis of cost per year of ownership.

 

[JoeS]

I think the Newmark Watch Company - Home are making rather lovely heritage/reissue watches. Their chronograph was originally issued to British military pilots, but their '52 is a lovely classic looking field watch for really not much cash.

 

[alz]

I have used the same Orvis wristwatch for some 20 years - quite expensive when new and leather strap still intact - but a cheap Eaglemoss watch for past few years for working in garden or vintage on Land Rover. It's one of a series that are copies of military watches, and a present as I spend so much time with the old Landie now I'm retired.
Also have an ancient pocket watch that is still in a Primus brand protective metal case that my grandfather used in WW1 - so doesn't have a strap but a chain - in my workshop.

 

[selectortone]

Casio G-shock for me too. Pretty much indestructible. Shock resistant, 100m waterproof, solar powered and synchs daily with atomic clocks so it's always accurate to within a second. Stopwatch, countdown timer, calendar, five alarms, world clock, two time-zones, auto adjusts for summertime. Excellent back-light for nighttime.

I have two, one with hands that looks quite handsome and cost a couple of hundred and a digital one (GW-M5610) that was under 100 which suits my old eyes better. I have a really nice Seiko alarm chronometer but that just sits in a drawer.

 

[recipio]

I got a Seiko automatic with a glass back in Hong Kong in 2007. It lasted about 7 years. I then splurged on a battery Seiko from some website in Japan for £200 and still have it. The mechanism is enclosed in a block of plastic so not for watch lovers but I still take it off if using a drill/jackhammer.

 

[Droogs]

I think the Newmark Watch Company - Home are making rather lovely heritage/reissue watches. Their chronograph was originally issued to British military pilots, but their '52 is a lovely classic looking field watch for really not much cash.

A the classic MOD G10 watch as issued to every nco and above if they didn't have their own. excellent watches, i wore one for around 15 years

 

[kinverkid]

For many years I bought watches on whims. Nothing too expensive. Since my retirement I have whittled it down now to ten by selling or giving some away. I feel a little guilty about having those now because I rarely wear them. My go-to watch is my Garmin fenix 3. I have a pack of screen protectors and a titanium bracelet so I'm fine wearing it in the workshop. It will vibrate when there's a message or alarm and of course monitors my activities each day (I wish there was a hand planing setting). Down side is it needs re-charging every ten to fourteen days depending on how much running/hiking I've done. you can pick up a bargain fenix 3 or 5 second hand from people who have moved on to the latest one or just went through a fitness phase.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm one of the weirdos - I use a watch to tell the time, a phone to phone people, a camera to take photos.

 

[Nelly111s]

Ive got a couple of watches - a steel automatic Omega co-axial and an Apple Watch. I use the Apple for work and sport, the Omega for everything else. Apple is good paired with iPhone for reminders, timers, seeing (and feeling) calls when machinery is running and the strap is such that it will pull off if it ever got caught on something. Its also waterproof so easy to wash the dust off.
The Omega is "better". It tells the time and date.
I'm also like @Phil Pascoe in the watches, cameras and phones are best for what they were designed for.

 

[Fergie 307]

I'm one of the weirdos - I use a watch to tell the time, a phone to phone people, a camera to take photos.

Good for you ! Tried to get a simple cordless phone for my 98 year old dad. There really is no such thing anymore, they all seen to do 150 different things, 149 of which you will probably never want to, and an umpteen page menu to work through to do anything. I like a nice old fashioned watch that ticks. Don't know why people are so obsessed with wanting to know the time to the nearest second anyway.

 

[TomGW]

I have far too many watches, probably 40 or 50, including a dozen Omega, plus IWC, Panerai etc. The one that gets the most regular use is a G-Shock, AWG M100. Solar, 6 Band, so never needs a battery and gets the time signal correction every night.
For those who favour the Seiko SKX007 etc check out the Steeldive equivalent. Costs less but has a better Seiko movement, a sapphire Crystal, which the Seiko hasn’t, ceramic bezel and a better build quality. Definitely a better alternative.

 

[Dazed]

When you are retired, what do you need a watch for?

Easy - dentist, doctor, hospital, time to phone a friend...!

 

[TominDales]

Artie, Do you rally need a timer on the watch? That adds extra buttons to go wrong, if you do, then nice robust ones are quite pricy from Seiko, Breitling, Tissot. Your phone has a timer, also you may want to get a fit bit type thing.

My father gave me a Tissot automatic with date for my 18th birthday. I like the leather strap and replace it every 2 years for £5 to £15. Lost and replaced it with the same but a battery electric version. So in total had 2 watches over 40 years. My father gave himself an Omega sea-master automatic at the same time, he is still wearing it 40 years later. Tissot is made by Omega, so same innards but without the design element. It has a sapphire face which is superb, no scratches after 20 years of abuse https://www.chisholmhunter.co.uk/me...25d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/-/2-040-03-0175_1.jpg currently discounted to £175. I gave my son one for his 21st birthday.



I replace the battery every five to 7 years for about £15 - on my third since 2000. I like the simplicity of it and the analogue face. Its water resistant and stays on my wrist 24/7.

I use my phone for timer. And recently bought a £20 fit bit/smart watch that goes on the other writ and measures pulse, sleep cycle and counts steps - got to that age where these things are useful. Still use the watch to tell the time, but the fit bit thing is useful in the dark and has a timer. Ugly thing and needs charging every 4 days - one of the better ones from that point of view. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07SQ2LGWX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you need the timer, you might want to consider a smart watch that combines all the functions of the fit bit thing with a nice analogue face in one device. BUT they need frequent charging.
I'm very happy with my Tissot as it runs for ever. It looses a few seconds a month so I have to reset the time around the hour change (modern electronic quartz timing, about as accurate as Harrison's H4 marine chronometer from 1780!!) and use the phone or fit bit for boiling eggs etc

 

[baldkev]

G shocks... i have 1 for work, which has taken a beating and been splatterered with specs of paint etc. Every now and then i take the case off because the fine dust tends to clog up the buttons... a few minutes later its ready for another 18 months of abuse i had to do the strap at about 5 years old. That one was about 50 quid

I also have a solar g shock for normal wear, which still looks like new after 4 years. ( i dont wear it often ).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

When retired you need a watch to tell you it's beer o'clock.