Best $500 (or Less) Watches

May 11, 2010, By Elliot Feldman 9 comments

It used to be that a high-quality man's watch could only be had for $1,000 or more. Fortunately, the technological advances of modern men's watches can give the average consumer a longer-lasting watch with a wide variety of functions for less than $500.

Watchmaker Terms

Before buying a high-quality, inexpensive men's watch, you should have an understanding of common watchmaker terms.

Movement: The mechanism inside a watch's case that makes it run. It measures the passage of time and displays the current time. Jewels in a watch's movement prevent its steel parts from grinding against each other.

Mechanical watch: A nonelectronic movement driven by a spring or mainspring that is wound by hand typically once a day. They are usually more expensive than quartz watches but not as accurate. They're worn more like a piece of men's jewelry.

Quartz watch: Run by electric current that causes the quartz stones to vibrate; it does not need to be wound.

Automatic or self-winding watch: A watch that continuously winds itself by using the kinetic energy of your hand.

Chronometer: A watch that has passed testing by the COSC, an official Swiss government agency that tests watch movements for timekeeping quality.

While the "Swiss movement" has long served as the pinnacle of watchmaking quality, the industry took a deep plunge in the '70s with the introduction of inexpensive, high-quality, quartz-movement technology, mostly from Japan. In recent years, however, the Swiss watch industry has caught up with inexpensive, high-quality watch technologies endorsed by KH, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

High-Quality, Inexpensive Watch Functions

Before buying a high-quality, inexpensive men's watch, figure out what watch functions you'll actually use. There are many to choose from.

Chronograph: A stopwatch function that allows users to time events of short and medium duration; a few seconds to a few hours.

Perpetual calendar: Keeps track of date, day of the week, months, years, and even leap years.

Water resistant: Refers to resistance to water pressure as opposed to diving depths. Water resistance is measured in meters, commonly up to 200 meters.

Shock resistant: A watch that has a movement that's fitted with a shock absorber system. It can typically withstand being dropped from a height of 1 meter onto a horizontal surface of hard wood.

A Finnish company sells a high-quality, inexpensive watch that starts at $499. Its functions include an altimeter, a barometer, a thermometer, a compass, a heart-rate monitor, and even a clinometer for measuring slope angles.

Note that watches selling for less than $500 are typically not made of gold. If it is, it contains gold plating that will tarnish with time. Most high-quality, inexpensive watches are made of plastic, aluminum or stainless steel.