There was a phase in my life where I got into watches for a year or two. Today, I’ll only wear a watch once or twice a week since my phone pretty much tells me the time at the click of a button. You’ll hear people bragging a lot at work or social events about their watches. Rolex has always been the gold standard, but they will name drop watchmakers like Panerai, Bell & Ross, Tag, and Breitling all as ‘if you really want to impress watches. Most of price tags on these watches are in the several thousand or more category, so can you start your watch collection for less than $1,000 bucks and still look like a million? You betcha! Here are four watches that I would take a look at for yourself or for someone as a gift to start out a really cool collection.
- Jack Spade Conway 38mm Watch– I have always had an eye for watches that are fashionable that not many people wear. I remember when I bought my Panerai watch some 10 years ago before anyone was really looking at them. For a price tag of $298 try the grey strap with the orange face, or the red strap with the black face. Both look very cool and the price is right.
- The Shinola Runwell 47mm– Popularized in WWII, the phrase ‘you don’t s**t from Shinola’ means that you have really poor judgment. Making an investment for $550 in this beautiful clean green face watch with tan leather strap will certain impress all types of watch fans. Best of all it is American made up in Detroit. I like the whole look and feel of all the Shinola watches.
- The Nixon 51-30 PU– This watch looks especially cool with its black background and yellow neon face. What you have to love about the Nixon watches is that they’ve universally swapped the 3,6,9,12 normal numbers on the face of the watch for 2,4,6,8, and 10. It’s just looks different and for $350 to $400, it will appear like you are wearing a watch that cost several thousands.
- Swatch Scuba Libra Deep Turtle– When I was looking as watches for under $100, I used to tell people that Diesel was DEE-SELL which made it sound fancier. I was wearing Swatches in the 1980’s but they fell out of favor over the years. For just $90, The Scuba Libra Deep Turtle is a perfect Spring, Summer, and Fall watch for the weekends. It looks great and will handle a ton of wear and tear.
For those that are still major watch enthusiasts and want to spend money, the watch that isn’t on anyone’s radar yet is U-Boat (www.uboatwatch.com) Flightdeck CAS-50. It is almost part reverse Panerai part hand grenade all packed into a watch. Promise you, this one will eventually get big time play among watch enthusiasts. However, if you want to spend $500 to $1,000 and pick up a couple of awesome looking watches, these would be four of my favorites.
Written by:
Ted Jenkin
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