Owning a beautiful timepiece is about expressing our individuality, and, for men particularly, it might be the only piece of jewellery we wear. If you’re not a watch devotee already, why not give it a whirl? Chances are you’ll love it.
While £500 may be a fair amount of cash to shell out, it pales in comparison to the Rolexes and Patek Philippes of the world. Plus, a good watch will hopefully last you a lifetime and be a sweet heirloom piece to pass on to younger generations. Think of it as an investment.
With this in mind, we’ve searched high and low for the finest, most covetable watches available at a reasonable price point.
Quick note for novices: ‘automatic’ movements are the self-winding mechanical power source favoured by aficionados and purists; quartz is the generally cheaper, usually more accurate, battery-powered movement. ‘Lume’ is the glow-in-the-dark stuff in the dial (great for marvelling at your new toy in bed).
Best men’s watches under £500 at a glance:
- Best for classic cinematic cool: Hamilton Khaki Field - £480, Hamilton Watch
- Best for timeless divers: Orient Mako Arabic Dial - £410, Orient Watch
- Best for travelling light: RZE Resolute in Medallion Yellow - £393, RZE Watches
- Best for form and function: Unimatic U4 Classic - £364, Unimatic Watches
- Best for stargazers and howling wolves: Certina DS-8 Moon Phase - £465, Jura Watches
- Best for anywhere in or near the ocean: Spinnaker Dumas Regatta White - £374, H.S. Johnson
- Best for everyday brilliance: BOLDR Supply Co Voyage Antarctic - £449, First Class Watches
- Best for storytellers: Marloe Astro Eagle - £369, Marloe
- Best for sipping and smooching: Seiko ‘Midnight Blue Moon’ Presage Cocktail Time - £380, Goldsmiths
- Best for a fresh take on timelessness: Baltic Aquascaphe Classic Blue Gilt - £495, Baltic Watches
- Best for horological historians: Bulova Parking Meter Chronograph - £449, John Lewis
- Best for making a glitzy splash: Tissot Seastar 1000 - £395, Watch Shop
- Best for night vision: Luminox ICE-SAR Arctic - £364.29, Amazon
- Best for adventurers and navigators: Casio G-Shock Mudman GW-9500 - £349, G Shock
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Hamilton Khaki Field
Best for: classic cinematic cool
This star-studded brand has been seen on the wrists of everyone from Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express to Elvis in Blue Hawaii and currently Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in Oppenheimer. This Khaki Field is one of their only truly affordable watches, a suave, sophisticated take on the company’s long heritage of military-style timepieces.
It’s a quartz movement and doesn’t do much beyond telling the time. Dusky brown and off-black set against a glint of steel will never lose its fashion credibility. Want to feel like a stealth movie hero? Go buy.
Buy now £480.00, Hamilton
Orient Mako Arabic Dial
Best for: timeless divers
So, you’re after something crafted by a nation that’s steeped in a long history of watchmaking, but Switzerland is simply too rich for your blood? Then the next stop on your search should undoubtedly be Japan, home to giants of the business Seiko and Citizen, but also the slightly less well-known yet equally mighty Orient.
Look no further than the Mako, a truly quintessential diving watch that first appeared in 2004. This 2023 upgrade – complete with Arabic numerals, a sapphire crystal face and a salmon-pink dial and bezel – still exudes a gorgeous retro aesthetic.
Buy now £425.00, Orient
RZE Resolute in Medallion Yellow
Best for: travelling light
RZE has an ingenious USP up its sleeve: their titanium is coated in a proprietary UltraHex technology, meaning the surface will remain scratch-free, untarnished and as good as new for much longer than standard titanium watches.
Their flagship Resolute model doesn’t just feel like a barely-there second skin; it also packs a trusty, whisper-light Japanese Miyota 90S5 movement under the hood, comes with a screw-down crown and is water resistant to 100 metres (at least good enough for a heavy snorkelling session).
However, what really sealed the deal for me is that resplendent dusty yellow dial and the ever-so-slightly-retro markers.
Buy now £393.00, RZE
Unimatic U4 Classic
Best for: form and function
Unimatic watches are made in Italy and this U4 model manages to be both pared-back, unfussy and yet oozing with character. It’s petite yet chunky (check out that bold, brushed steel case); the dial is totally uncluttered while brimming with satisfying details (a reverse lollipop second-hand, super-bright pale green lume that sings in the dark).
All of this is more than just style too: the U4 is a tough-as-nails, military-style diver that’s water-resistant to 300 metres.
Buy now £364.00, Unimatic
Certina DS-8 Moon Phase
Best for: stargazers and howling wolves
Besides time and date, that disc in the middle slowly rotates, indicating the waxing and waning of the moon. Certina is another Swiss brand founded in the 19th century, so top quality is a given, although to keep the price down they have used a quartz movement - no harm there, as it’s damned accurate.
One caveat: I found the metal clasp on the strap slightly uncomfortable and would choose a different strap. But for a touch of traditional watch design that will take you from a snazzy-jazzy dinner party to a full-on all-nighter, this is a rather handsome choice.
Buy now £465.00, Jura Watches
Spinnaker Dumas Regatta White
Best for: anywhere in or near the ocean
It’s tricky to pick just one of Spinnaker’s pieces, but I love the beefy, Seventies adventurer vibe of this Dumas in classically nautical red, white and blue stylings.
The build quality is equally superb (Seiko automatic movement; water-resistance to an ear-popping 300 metres; sapphire lens), while the extra thoughtful details haven’t been forgotten: the bezel markers also have full-on lume, and there’s an exhibition case back to view the movement in action.
Buy now £374.00, H.S. Johnson
BOLDR Supply Co Voyage Antarctic
Best for: everyday brilliance
BOLDR Supply Co.’s Voyage Antarctic is loaded with top-notch Seiko automatic movement, will take you 200 metres under the ocean, with the added water-tightness of a screw-down crown, and the lume on the hands and dial is nicely punchy.
However, what makes this truly great is the subtle swagger they’ve injected into the styling. Those yellow retro-esque hands and numerals against that petrol-blue dial is a colour combo to die for, there’s a customised transparent case back, while the high dome ‘box’ sapphire crystal adds a hint of vintage elegance.
Buy now £449.00, First Class Watches
Marloe Astro Eagle
Best for: storytellers
Micro brand Marloe – founded on the banks of Loch Leven in Scotland less than 10 years ago – makes limited, individually numbered runs of their finely crafted timepieces. Every design is their horological tribute to a story of human endeavour.
Go on, see if you can take one small step and guess the inspiration for this watch… Yep, it’s a rather groovy, retro-futurist salute to Neil Armstrong and co’s moon landing. The square form of the Astro is based on the vintage TVs people watched the event back in 1969; the circle being the moon or Earth on the screen.
Buy now £369.00, Marloe
Seiko ‘Midnight Blue Moon’ Presage Cocktail Time
Best for: sipping and smooching
The Cocktail Time series of watches are inspired by Japan’s mixology culture, specifically the drinks at the capital’s Star Bar in the groovy Ginza neighbourhood. This particular one? The glint of a Blue Moon cocktail in the midnight shadows, that gold second hand perhaps a slender twizzle stick for your aperitif.
The deep blue, radiating dial, calfskin strap and minimal fuss complete the classy aura. It’s Seiko, which does make watches above the £100K mark, but is also the benchmark for brilliantly affordable models too. A hugely dependable automatic movement keeps the whole thing ticking and ticking.
Buy now £380.00, Goldsmiths
Baltic Aquascaphe Classic Blue Gilt
Best for: a fresh take on timelessness
Baltic is devoted to crafting timeless watches created with an obsession for quality and rich detail, and at a price that won’t plunge you into bankruptcy.
This gorgeous Aquascaphe sums up what the brand does so well: it’s a classic, unfussy diver-style profile, but that deep, ocean blue sunray dial is just dreamily sumptuous. In keeping with traditionalism, it has a highly dependable Miyota mechanical movement and is water resistant to 200 metres.
Buy now £495.00, Baltic
Bulova Parking Meter Chronograph
Best for: horological historians
The original 1973 ‘Parking Meter’ is a bona fide classic from Bulova and it has now been revived from the archives for its 50th anniversary. If you can’t work out why it gets its name, take a look at the blue shape in the centre of the dial and remind yourself how parking meters looked back in the 70s and 80s (too young? Get googling).
It’s a bull’s head design (buttons at the top, like the horns of el toro, very sought after among aficionados) and packed with complications: a chronometer, a tachymeter (a kind of obsolete but fun tool for measuring the speed of a vehicle over time), date and a bottom crown that rotates a dial ring for a dual time function, plus it’s also handily 100m water-resistant.
Buy now £449.00, John Lewis
Tissot Seastar 1000
Best for: making a glitzy splash
Tissot, founded way back in 1853, is the third and oldest of our triumvirate of storied Swiss watchmakers. And you’re probably getting slightly more bang for your buck with this rugged yet ritzy little beauty.
Like the other Swiss pieces on this list, it’s powered by a highly accurate quartz movement, but unlike most watches here, the Seastar is water-resistant to a whopping 300 metres. So we’re talking a proper, throw on your oxygen tank and dive deep machine, but what I admire most is the swanky black-and-gold refresh of Tissot’s well-loved collection.
Buy now £395.00, Watch Shop
Luminox ICE-SAR Arctic
Best for: night vision
The big USP here is in the name (‘Lumi’ is Latin for light, while ‘nox’ is Latin for night), with every watch illuminated using tiny tubes containing tritium gas, a radioactive isotope that will glow constantly for 25 years. Don’t freak out, it’s not harmful - unless you take it upon yourself to eat a few dozen watches.
The ICE-SAR is a big, burly beast made from Carbonox, a rock-hard compound three times lighter than titanium that’s also (handily for some) anti-allergenic. It will take you 200m down into the ocean and that elongated second hand functions as a pulsometer, meaning you can start reading someone’s heartbeat 30 seconds earlier. As an eco bonus, the brand is also ‘comprehensively CO2 neutral’.
Buy now £364.29, Amazon
Casio G-Shock Mudman GW-9500
Best for: adventurers and navigators
Casio, a pioneer of environment-resistant watch technology, has given its classic Mudman a makeover. By incorporating G-Shock’s carbon core guard technology you can now take your adventures to a whole new level with its large format face and logical display regardless of what Mother Nature throws at you.
Rain, grit, mud, sand, heat… the internal gasket systems ensure all the bad stuff stays out. We put this to the test by dipping it elbow-deep in the muddiest of puddles and launching the watch full pelt onto a rock. Not even a scratch. It really is one tough mudder.
The watch is fully solar-powered (artificial light works too) but its most impressive feature is the enhanced highly accurate digital compass. The new dual-layered LCD enables you to view the compass and the time together. Ideal for when you’re navigating through difficult terrain and need to be aware of how long you have.
Time-keeping (using Multiband 6 Atomic readings) is spot-on to a millionth of a second, there’s an altimeter, barometer, water resistant to 200 metres, plus sunrise and sunset times in 31 different time zones. Heading for the wildest, roughest places? This is the choice.
Buy now £349.00, G Shock
