Anybody looking the online for the most effective low-cost watches for males will rapidly come to appreciate that the phrase “low-cost” is extraordinarily relative in relation to timepieces. On condition that the watch world accommodates the whole lot from $16 Casios to Pateks and Richard Milles value hundreds of thousands, one man’s beater watch can simply be one other’s prized grail. The excellent news? There are wonderful choices at each value level, and loads of watches within the sub-$250 realm that anybody can put on with pleasure, from smooth costume watches to rough-and-ready digitals.
Whilst you’ll discover a couple of mechanical choices right here (the old-fashioned selection that run on springs and gears) most entry-level watches will probably be battery-powered “quartz” fashions, and that’s not a nasty factor. Not solely are quartz watches extra sturdy than their mechanical brethren, they’re additionally much more correct. Finally, nonetheless, a very powerful factor that makes one watch higher than one other is how a lot you like it. And, apart from their affordability, there’s lots to like concerning the 28 hand-picked tickers under.
5 Sub-$250 Watches Worthy of Your Wrist
Store By Type: Gown Watches | Discipline Watches | Dive Watches | Digital Watches | Chronograph Watches | Retro Watches
The Finest Low cost Gown Watches
An awesome costume watch is sort of a nice pair of costume sneakers: basic, versatile, and constructed to final. As such, the most effective costume watches are usually extra understated than their sportier counterparts, with monochrome dials, sober black or brown leather-based straps, and slim circumstances (all the higher to slide below the cuff of your crispest white button-down.) Save the rotating bezels, chronograph dials, and brilliant colours on your off-duty timepieces; these stately tickers are all enterprise.
The Finest Low cost Discipline Watches
Like bomber jackets, cargo pants, and chukka boots, area watches made their approach into the canon of contemporary wardrobe staples by means of the army industrial advanced. Created for infantry within the Second World Warfare, the primary fashionable area watches had been designed to be easy, dependable, and legible, with massive, high-contrast white numerals, black dials, and durable cloth or leather-based straps. Luckily, the issues that made these timepieces indispensable on the battlefield makes them simply as helpful in peacetime, and the proper approach so as to add a touch of classic army fashion to your off-duty wardrobe.
The Finest Low cost Dive Watches
Until you spend your holidays communing with whale sharks in Baja or spearfishing off the Florida Keys, you in all probability gained’t do a lot (or any) diving in your dive watch. That is completely high-quality. Traditional analog diver’s watches aren’t actually used for diving anymore, however they’ve simply tailored to their landlocked second-act as business-casual equipment, a.ok.a. “desk divers.” Whether or not or not you truly plan on taking your watch within the ocean, search for a diver’s watch with a minimum of 100m of water resistance (200m is even higher), together with different signature options like a screw-down crown and a rotating bezel.
The Finest Low cost Digital Watches
When digital watches first appeared within the early Nineteen Seventies, they had been hailed as nothing lower than the equipment of the long run. Fifty-some years later folks stay extra enamored of old-school analog tickers than ever, however there’s nonetheless loads of room for a digital piece in any well-rounded watch assortment. Whereas at the moment’s top-shelf digital timepieces are available an enormous vary of types and features—together with ones with Bluetooth connectivity, atomic timekeeping, and altitude sensors—essentially the most fashionable examples are usually those with fewer bells and whistles and appears that recall their golden period within the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The Finest Low cost Chronograph Watches
If you happen to bought into watches any time after 2017, you’re in all probability acquainted with the story—nay, the legend—of Paul Newman’s “Paul Newman” Rolex Daytona. Luckily for anybody who doesn’t have $18 million to spend on a timepiece, there are a ton of different nice chronographs on the market for much less (and within the case of the selects under, lots much less). A chronograph is outlined as any timepiece with a built-in stopwatch operate, a distinction that makes any of those choices as helpful for timing a poached egg as clocking laps at Sebring.
The Finest Low cost Retro Watches
Watches aren’t immune from the ever-changing whims of trend, however they arrive shut. That’s why plenty of essentially the most iconic watches on the planet haven’t modified an entire lot (on the skin, anyway) for the final 50 years or extra. If you happen to’re a fan of the classic look (which incorporates WWII-era area watches, Nineteen Sixties costume tickers, Nineteen Seventies glam digital items, and lots of different basic genres) you don’t must troll eBay to discover a hidden gem. As an alternative, save your self the difficulty and choose up one thing that mixes the fashion of yesteryear with twenty first century reliability. Make sure you search for ones handled with water resistant or water-repellent coatings to make sure the utmost worth—and snag an all-around technical jacket whilst you’re at it.