If you’ve been around the watch collecting game for a bit, you’ve probably stumbled on the significant military history tied into the very existence of wristwatches. The deeper you dig, the more you find that the essential need for a wristwatch sprung up some time during World War I and the emergence of this period’s archetypal trench warfare—long before the wristwatch was even mainstream.
With $500 to spend on a new watch, you have many options. But among those, which are the best watches under $500? Here are our top choices.
What I believe is: watches act as signifiers of something that we dream of participating in. If I may let my BFA flag fly a little, what I believe is signified by wearing a GMT watch is that sense of travel…
In the watch world, Japan can be looked at as a microcosm of the entire industry. They contain affordable watches, micro brand watches, small independents, luxury, and some of the largest watch groups in the world. For other regions around the globe, you’ll have to shop across several different brand names, in many different countries, and in a variety of price segments to build a watch collection that includes affordable, microbrands, and luxury pieces. Japan makes that much easier, because you don’t have to leave the country’s borders.
The $2000 price point gets you into entry level luxury territory. With a stack of cash this size you have access to complications like automatic chronographs, GMTs, varied material choices like titanium and enamel, and nearly any style of watch you could imagine. Check out our top picks for the best watches under $2000!
While tritium watches are slightly more expensive than their Super-LumiNova counterparts and may lack that initial intense glow, they have some serious advantages. Rather than fading within hours, the glass tubes glow for up to 25 years! Despite its benefits, tritium remains the illumination underdog. This list of the best tritium watches celebrates the few brands currently using this exciting technology.
Field Watches may be one of the most ambiguous segments of the watch world, often with blurred lines between what constitutes a field watch and what doesn’t. If you were to create a Venn diagram of all the watch categories, field watches would be in the center with the most in common with all watch types.
Watch collectors are a passionate and sometimes picky group. We have boxes filled with mass-market watches, but sometimes, we want something more niche than the more prominent brands produce. This sense of wanting something more nuanced is where knowing the best microbrand watches comes into play.
You’ll find chronographs in countless watch boxes all over the world right next to their dive and dress watch brethren. With the modern dive watch being largely unchanged from its release in 1953, the same can’t be said about the chronograph. Quartz and mechanical chronograph technology has come a very far way over the past several decades.
